Would you like fries with that?
by hezzabeth
Summary: The last thing Dawn ever wanted to do was work for Mcdonalds, the symbol of evil globalisation. A californian diaries comedy.
1. Chapter 1

Would you like fries with that?

Disclaimer: I don't own Dawn or her family they belong to Anne M Martin, but I do own her godfather Michael.

A/N Just a little break from Rayd8her, I wrote this story ages and ages ago and then I found it on my hard drive.

From what I've seen there are heaps of babysitters club parodies but no real comedies about the Californian Diaries series.

So here you go!

Prologue

Every one has a best friend who in reality happens to be the worst friend you could possibly have. I guess the best way one can describe it can be that old Alice Cooper song Poison accepts with out all the obvious sex over tones, my dad was really into Alice Cooper when he was my age.

I've seen the pictures with the hair and eyeliner and it was scary.

In the pictures you could see my godfather Michael, dad still talks about him all the time in a kind of fond way. Sometimes Michael comes over to see Gracie and they sit outside and talk about the time Michael got dad arrested outside a rock concert, or all the times dad had to haul Michael's drunken ass home after a night on the town.

I remember the first time this happened I was thirteen, I vaguely remembered my godfather from my childhood but with the move to Stoneybrook and the divorce plus the fact mom hated Michael it had been years since I'd seen him.

I'd been feeding Gracie when he showed up and I remember well being shocked; he looked so normal… so not wild…

It was weird.

Jeff and I eavesdropped on the conversation and we pretended we felt bad about it afterwards. They were going over all these horrible stories and they were laughing about, they were laughing about the time Michael crashed dad's car or the time Michael got drunk and threw up at my dad's engagement dinner.

I remember thinking at the time; I was thinking that my father must have gone crazy.

I mean how could you forgive some one who seemed obsessed with screwing things up for you? I still hadn't forgiven Sunny for several reasons.

And then something happened, we all knew it was going to happen and there had been warning signs for months.

Still just because you know something's going to happen it doesn't make it any less shocking when it does, death is always sudden.

I guess it could be described as a get of free jail card, if your best friends mother dies you have to forgive them no matter what. I mean they could haves stabbed you in the back and kicked you until you were down but still some things just seem more important then a girl acting dumb over guys. Sure she still acted dumb over guys but she started acting smart about other things, I think in away it was as if she stopped having a reason to really rebel anymore.

The thing about a best worst friend is that you can hate them until you feel like there's nothing left, you can spend hours bitching about them to your sympathetic male friend Ducky (who would never ever be a boyfriend) but in the end you can't just let them go.

After Mrs. Winslow died Sunny moved back in with her dad and for eight months we barely spoke accept in a polite forced kind of way.

That was it.

Then we became friends again and it wasn't even dramatic, she just invited me to her fifteenth birthday party and suddenly she needed lifts to the store to buy stuff and she didn't ask Ducky for some reason I couldn't understand.

Then she started asking for decoration advice and a few days later I ran into Ducky and Sunny at the movies and everything just sort of eased itself back into place.

Then the cycle started again, you get the picture.

I guess that this little story was used to explain how I ended up working part time at a McDonalds restaurant.

Yes you heard me, Dawn Schafer champion of environmental causes found herself working in an evil symbol of globalization, obesity, and general evil.

Ew.

It was all Sunny's fault.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: Evil pollution spewing cars and the Kittycat club.

A/N I decided to split this story into several chapters because it's way to long other wise.

I don't own the BSC bitches.

It sounded innocent enough when Ducky our cool now in college friend decided to teach us how to drive. Of course I knew it was a bad idea, Sunny may have passed her crawling into random guys cars while still wearing her roller blades phase but no sensible person would trust her behind a steering wheel.

The girl couldn't even drive bumper cars without smashing them into walls.

But then again Ducky was so trusting and he'd always had a blind spot for Sunny, even when he started dating other girls (and I think guys) during his freshmen year at UCLA.

"Right now if you want to make a right turn" he began instructing Sunny in a painfully patient tone of voice and I sighed turning my attention to the window. Ducky was now driving around in a convertible his parents had bought him when he graduated; I think it was a "sorry we were in a third world country during your entire high school experience gift".

It was so weird actually meeting Ducky's parents at the time considering I'd always wondered what kind of parents would really think it was a good idea to leave their son in the care of a twenty-year-old college student.

I was kind of putting off the learning how to drive thing, learning how to drive would mean getting a car and getting a car would mean going against my principals as an environmentalist.

I hated being hypocritical.

Still Dad said it was a good idea to get my license in case of an emergency and I guess I agreed with him, getting a license would be ok as long as it was strictly only ever used for emergencies.

Emergencies which didn't include driving Sunny home from a party when she was so wasted she thought her seat belt was a piece of licorice.

"Hmm Sunny is that the guy you made out with at Eloise's sweet sixteenth?" I mused spotting some random kinda emo looking guy out the window.

"You mean Charlie? Where?" Sunny cried.

I had forgotten the principal rule of driving lessons with Sunny; never distract Sunny because when she turned to look out the mirror she turned everything.

Including the steering wheel.

"Stop Sunny! I'm too young to die and I haven't seen the new episodes of doctor who yet!" Ducky shrieked hysterically.

"Stop?" Sunny asked confused completely unconcerned by the fact she was now driving on the sidewalk.

"For the love of god stop!" I screeched suddenly seeing the palm tree looming ahead of us.

There was a squeal as she pressed down on the breaks, the smell of burning tires and a thudding sound.

Unfortunately it's impossible to avoid crashing into a palm tree when you're trying to break after driving ninety miles an hour.

I slowly began to breath and I think Ducky was crying.

"You HURT THE TREE!" I cried.

"I didn't mean too!" Sunny said sheepishly.

"My car, my beautiful non garbage filled car" Ducky cried his head in his hands.

And then there was the creaking sound.

"Every one gets out!" I cried.

"Huh?" Sunny blinked, Ducky just sobbed.

"The tree is going to come crashing down any minute!" I pointed out and that got every ones attention.

We scrambled out of the car Sunny crawling over Ducky's lap despite the fact she was sitting next to the door.

We all watched in horror as the front of Ducky's convertible met its destiny, which was in the form of a palm tree.

"He didn't take it that badly," Sunny said some time later.

"He was so hysterical the emergency crew thought he had a concussion," I pointed out.

"Yeah but he didn't kill us, I mean I remember Lorne nearly killed me when I knocked over the parking break while I was going down on him" Sunny said sounding strangely optimistic.

"Ew Sunny I really didn't need to know that" I pointed out.

"We nearly rolled off a cliff you know, it was kinda exciting until the car crashed into the fence" Sunny added thoughtfully.

I groaned, there was no use in trying to reason with Sunny when she was busy getting nostalgic over something in her smutty past.

"Sunny what are we going to do? I mean we're both responsible for trashing his car" I sighed miserably.

We'd been sitting outside the malls main exist for over an hour ever since Ducky had just pointed at us his mouth open and then he'd wondered off.

I think he was having a psychotic break down.

"We'll say we're sorry and he'll forgive us, Ducky always forgives us" Sunny smiled easily and I glared at her.

"This is without a doubt the worst thing you've ever done and Ducky has put up with some pretty crazy shit from you, I think you broke him" I pointed out.

"Ducky has not put up with any kind of shit from me let alone crazy shit" Sunny huffed.

"Oh yeah what about the time he picked you up when you tried to run away from home?" I asked.

"I was depressed, my mother was dying" Sunny glared at me and I felt flustered for a second.

"Ok what about the time you just like kissed him for fun, or the time you dragged him to that gay club and he didn't know what it was and he hooked up with that girl who was really a guy" I continued.

"Hmm ok.." Sunny began.

"Or what about the time you convinced him to go joy riding to Canada?" I continued.

"We got arrested by real Mounties! It was cool!" Sunny grinned.

I just stared at her, it was a stare I'd been perfecting for nearly 13 years and it nearly always worked.

"Well what am I supposed to do about it? Buy Ducky a new car? Get real" Sunny snorted and I rolled my eyes.

"When are you going to grow up Sunny?" I snapped and I stood up, suddenly I was in the food for fat free naturally flavored berry frozen yogurt.

The next day Sunny found me outside Indian Fox, it was a formal wear shop designed for us girls who have social consciences and a need to respect and immolate other cultures. I was determined to go to my junior prom in a dress made out of sari fabric in order to promote the injustices towards third world workers in Bombay. I think Sunny mentioned something about going to the Junior Prom in hot pants and a tiara.

"Dawn" she began warily and I eyed her up.

"You look tired and kinda sweaty" I said and she frowned.

"I had to run for the bus"

"Ah, no more caging free rides off Ducky" I mused and she sighed.

"I think I actually do feel really really bad about this" Sunny admitted.

"Wow there's a shocker"

"I mean he kept insisting it was his fault on the phone last night, that he should have known I wasn't ready to start driving and it just made me feel really.." she began trailing off.

"Irresponsible?"

"Yeah" she sighed.

"So what are we going to do about it?"  
"Well we could pay for the damages, I mean when you were in the babysitters club you guys used to raise money all the time by doing weird stuff like dog parades"

Sunny pointed out and I had to agree, some of Kristy Thomas's money making ideas were a little on the surreal side.

"Some how I don't think a dog parade will raise enough cash, we broke the front windows and the hood," I pointed out and Sunny bit her lip.

"Leave it to me, I'll think of something" she said.

"Sunny what ever your plan is it better not involve drugs, strip clubs or prostitution," I said grimly.

Unfortunately it turned out to be much worse then that.

"Sunny why are we outside McDonalds, I thought you knew perfectly well how I feel about this evil symbol of westernization" I said grimly.

"Don't you mean globalization? It's more global then like western" Sunny trailed off.

"Whatever" I sighed.

I'd ridden my bike past the restaurant several times and I'd even been inside during my no meat for teens tofu burger sit in the year before.

The sit in had lasted for six hours until Marcie Brown drank one of their milkshakes and ended up being driven to the hospital for food poisoning.

"We're here because I've figured out how we'll pay for Ducky's car, we'll just work here after school" Sunny smiled.

"Oh Sunny" I began shaking my head.

"What? No ones going to make us eat the food" she pointed out.

"But we'll be selling it to the public!"

"They have a health food bar now! Besides it's not like we'll be forcing them to cram it down their throats and where else can two sixteen year olds with next to no experience get jobs that actually give us shifts?" Sunny pointed out.

"You know I almost wish we were prostitutes" I sniffed with disgust and Sunny sighed.

"Dawn you're still two eighths a virgin you would never survive, besides I have connections and they've promised they'll hire us" she smirked.

I was expecting Sunny's connection to be one of the creepy guys she met at club Blink. They were really good at getting DVD players dirt-cheap however Sunny tended to unscrew the doorknobs on her bedroom whenever she heard police sirens.

Instead the connection turned out to be Jill.

Jill was our friend back when we were little kids and we were still into babysitting and Penny Loafers. Then Sunny got a navel ring and they stopped speaking, I on the other hand still spoke to Jill when she came over to my house to see my sister Gracie and she wasn't wearing her stupid pony shirt.

But no one can stay a kid forever and eventually Jill outgrew the junior Miss section at the Gap.

She was still frighteningly perky and cute though and she tended to wear matching pastel twin sets with flower shaped barrettes.

"Guys!" she squealed from her position at the cash register and I stared at her.

She was wearing an assistant manager uniform.

"Jill, hi" I began and as I watched vaguely horrified Sunny actually hugged her.

"So I see that you two made up" I smiled tightly.

Jill beamed at me, she'd done her hair in pigtails one either side of her head and she had on bright pink glittery eye shadow with matching nails.

"Oh don't be silly Dawn I've been tutoring Sunny in history, we've been friends for ages" Jill beamed.

"Yeah you heard her," Sunny said giving me a forced look.

"Ok so I'm guessing that Jill is going to help us get a job" I began and Jill beamed.

"Sunny was in here the other night with Mitch I think" Jill began in breathless gossiping whisper.

"No it was John" Sunny interjected.

"Oh right John, anyway she like told me about the accident and I felt so bad! I remember during my first driving lesson I ran over a mailbox but the car was ok so it wasn't a huge big deal! Anyway she was talking to me about how she was going to get a job at this place called the Kittycat lounge but then I remember that we needed two new cashiers right here! So I talked to the manager Kim and she like totally agreed to it" Jill babbled.

"Wait a second don't we have to be interviewed first?" I began and Jill waved her hand.

"Oh yeah normally you would but a bunch of our staff walked out last week after we were robbed for the sixth time in a row" she sighed.

"Robbed?" I choked.

"Oh they never rob us before midnight and Kim lets us high schoolers finish our shifts long before then" Jill said reassuringly.

"Listen Jill it was really sweet of you to offer this job but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable working for a company that allows children to grow obese" I began and Sunny glared at me.

"Kittycat club" she said meaningfully and I sighed.

"But I'm sure I'll get used to it" I admitted.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: Family Values.

"Family I have an announcement to make" I said at dinner.

"Honey this isn't about the red paint you threw all over that poor girls fur coat at the movie theatre last week" Carol began.

"No this is different from my usual environmental crusades," I admitted.

"You know you still owe me twenty dollars for that dry cleaning bill," Dad added and my little sister Gracie began to throw her beans at Jeff's head.

"I bet she's a lesbian," Jeff said wisely.

"I am not a lesbian," I said coldly.

"It's cool if you are" Jeff said dismissively.

"Yes Dawn we'll support you no matter what your life style choices are" Carol said smiling.

"Besbian?" Gracie asked looking confused.

" I AM NOT GAY, THIS IS ABOUT ME GETTING A JOB," I bellowed and they all stared at me.

"Honey why would you want a job? Getting a job means becoming a part of the system" Dad said meaningfully.

"You have a job," I pointed out.

"Yeah but I'm a tired ex punk from the seventies, you're still young! You should be out protesting, not working" Dad pointed out.

"Mommy wots a punk?" Gracie asked.

"It's a dude who wears safety pins in their noses and can you stop throwing your food at my head?" he informed his little sister and being Gracie she reacted the way she always did when some one yelled at her.

She grabbed onto her apple juice sippy cup and promptly poured it's entire contents on Jeff's lap.

"You little brat!" Jeff screamed.

"Gracie we have discussed this, food goes in mouths not on clothing" Carol said mildly.

"Orry Mommy" Gracie said looking sheepish.

"Dad I'm getting a job because I need to pay for something," I admitted.

"Pay for what? You have a college fund and your grandparents give you enough money for everything else" he pointed out and I sighed.

"I just want to pay for something myself, can't you let me be responsible?" I cried.

"Dawn don't you think you're over extending yourself, I mean you're already a member of the teens against meat foundation, amnesty international, the Palo city life volunteer life saver organization and that band Vanish" Carol pointed out.

"You know telling her not to put food on my clothes doesn't do shit! She still does it anyway and sometimes she goes into my room and she leaves her dried apricots in my shoes" Jeff grumbled.

"If it makes you feel any better I'll quite the life saving organization! I really need to do this" I insisted.

"She's only leaving food in your clothes because she loves you, they're presents" Carol informed Jeff.

"If she really loved me she'd buy me a Ipod" Jeff pointed out.

"Jeff she's four, how is she going to buy you an Ipod?" Carol sighed.

"Oh so you'd prefer to prevent saving lives in order to get money? I can't believe this my daughter is turning into a capitalist" my dad groaned.

"I'm not a capitalist for Christ sake! In the real world people have to work to pay for things dad" I screamed.

"Well if you really loved me you'd buy me an Ipod!" Jeff said sounding incredibly immature for a thirteen year old.

"I love you Jeffie" Gracie cried climbing out of her chair in order to give Jeff a sticky applesauce smelling hug.

"Oh for the love of god you may love me but that doesn't mean I have to like you, you're ruining my shirt" Jeff protested but he picked her up anyway and carried her away from the table in order to wash her hands.

"Honey I think Dawn should go for this job, I know that capitalism is bad but she's going to have to learn how to use money responsibly sooner or later" Carol said calmly.

"She learned how to use money when she was a babysitter" Dad protested.

"Oh yeah I learned how to manage six whole dollars at a time, wow" I drawled rolling me eyes.

"It's normal for a teenager to get a job, when I was sixteen I worked as a cage dancer at a club" Carol pointed out.

"Carol I really don't want to hear the story about how you met dad right now" I said and she glared at me.

"No need to be a smart ass Dawn," she said and Dad groaned.

"Fine obviously she's going to get a job no matter what I do, so where are you working Dawn?" he asked.

I stared at my plate.

"Um.. McDonalds" I began.

There was a thudding sound as dad fainted and then Gracie began to squeal with delight.

"Daddy dead! Daddy dead!" she shrieked.

Once we'd established Dad wasn't dead Carol decided it would be a good idea for me to leave the house unless I wanted to risk a two hour lecture on why McDonalds was an evil cooperation destroying humanity.

I mean I agreed with dad but I'd heard the same lecture ever since I was five; it was kinda loosing its impact.

"Hey Dawn I was just about to come over" I said seeing Sunny in one of her more popular outfits.

"Well don't you look like a walking felony, what's up with the red halter neck? Are you planning another hot date?" I asked and Sunny grinned.

"No we're going to go see another one of my connections, now hurry up because Maggie's going to pick me us up any minute"

"Maggie? What does Maggie have to do with anything?" I asked.

Maggie picked us up in her dad's town car, unlike us Maggie had drivers and she never bothered to pick up her license.

She said she'd fail if she tried so there was no point, but that was Maggie all over.

"Sunny told me what happened, of course I already heard from Rico who heard it off Justin, apparently Ducky rang him up at six am crying hysterically" Maggie began.

"Hmm yeah, we're trying to earn enough cash to at least help him fix his car" I began.

"Ducky is a very proud man, he'd never accept it" Maggie said seriously.

"Oh we're not going to tell him, you see I happen to know a guy who graduated from Vista last year, he's name is Seth and he's working in the auto shop on Sunset road" Sunny said with a shrug.

"So?" I asked curiously.

"So Ducky was convinced his car was a total right off and he sold it to a junkyard for spare parts, I got Seth to pick it up and he's going to fix it for us, all we have to do is pay" Sunny informed me.

"Your connections are starting to scare me Sunny" I sighed.

"Sunny has asked me to act as your financial advisor, I have no idea why because I suck at Math just like I suck at everything else in life" Maggie said but Maggie seemed to work best on depressing autopilot.

"Wait a second Sunny this plan sounds like it can actually work" I began and Sunny smirked.

"He's going back to college next week and he wont be back until the summer, we have until then to earn enough cash to fix the car" Sunny began and I blinked.

"I know I was surprised as you are, it almost seems like the old selfless Sunny is back" Maggie mused.

"Hey I've always been selfless! I've just been a little pre occupied with being selfish lately to show it!" Sunny said an annoyed expression on her face.

Seth turned out to be a little on the scary side, it was obvious that he was one of those special people who were talented when it came to fixing cars but were so stupid they didn't even notice that the world got dark at night time.

"So you're Sunny's friend Dawn! Wow it's like you're names are like both part of the sun you know? Accept you're like the sun waking up and Sunny is like coming out of you, like a sun baby"

That was the first thing he ever said to me.

"Yes I'm giving birth to Sunny in the form of sunshine," I said with a forced smile.

"That's so cosmic man," he said slowly nodding with appreciation.

"Sunny can I please speak with you? In private?" I asked.

"What was that about?" she whispered once I'd dragged her outside.

"Is Seth a stoner?" I asked and she glanced inside briefly where Seth was trying to impress Maggie by balancing a pencil on top of his nose.

"Could a stoner really balance a pencil?" Sunny pointed out and I rolled my eyes.

"Ok so he did smoke a fair share of weed and it did kinda fry him out but he cleaned up after he graduated," Sunny said sincerely.

"I'm not sure if this is such a good idea Sunny, I mean what if he screws the car up even more?" I pointed out.

"Ducky already thinks that the car has been sent to an auto wrecking yard and Seth will fix it really cheap" Sunny pointed out.

"I guess we're in a loose loose situation so it doesn't really matter" I admitted.

"That's the spirit! Now lets start negotiating with Seth! I think he'll give us a fifty percent discount if we flash him" Sunny smiled and I frowned.

"Well I guess we could ask him if he could turn the car into a solar powered electric one…but I'm not flashing my boobs" I said warily and Sunny sighed.

"Guess this means we'll be working longer hours then"

I used to assume that chasing after the Pike kids when they were hyped up on unnatural refined sugar was hard, but that was a picnic compared to working at McDonalds.

I mean sure chasing kids is hard but your ankles end up hurting a lot more when you're forced to stand in front of the deep fryer for periods of up to and including eight hours. Jill had put me in front of the French fries until I got used to how things were apparently done. This required defrosting chips in one fryer moving them to the next, cooking them and then salting them all the while trying to fill the fifty odd orders that came every two minutes.

But then again that was a picnic compared to dealing with Nick. Nick made the burgers out back and I suspected that he was a former serial killer out on parole. I came to this conclusion during my second shift at McDonalds.

Up until that point it had been a nice enough day, sure the smell of grilled meat was making me gag and I was so depressed about the Styrofoam containers that I wanted to cry but it seemed like I was going to be able to go through a whole shift without crawling into the fetal position.

That was before Nick came charging past me screaming hysterically while brandishing a butcher's knife.

There was a tearing sound followed by a faint sizzling and I watched in detached horror as two galleons of coke spilt all over the floor.

He was standing across the sticky brown ocean his face contorted with rage, his chest raising and falling while he still held the knife above his head.

"Are you ok Nick?" I finally managed to ask and that was when he realized he wasn't alone.

He stared at me for a few seconds and then he lowered the knife still panting.

"Fine Fine, never finer" he breathed before trudging towards the giant cooling fridge.

"Nick, well Nick is special" Jill grinned.

"You mean special as in special ed?" don't you. Now normally I had nothing against the disabled in fact I'd been hired to baby-sit kids with disabilities during numerous politically correct adventures.

However I kind of drew the line when the "special" person happened to be running around with a butcher's knife.

"Exactly! He has um, what's it called? Manic something or other" Jill grinned.

"Manic depression?" I choked.

"Yep that's it! McDonalds hired him because of you know equal opportunities in the work place and all that! If we fired him he could end up suing us and that would be bad," Jill giggled nervously.

We were sitting outside during our lunch break, I'd stuck to the McDonalds salads plus menu but even the vegetables were filled with evil globalization preservatives.

"How often does he run around screaming with the knives?" I asked and Jill bit her pink lip thoughtfully.

"Oh around once a week, but don't worry you'll soon recognize the scream and develop really good dodging reflexes" she smiled scooping up a mouthful of her sundae.

"So how's Sunny doing anyway?" I asked, Sunny had been given the later shifts. She would sneak out at night anyway so we reasoned that she might as well do it for a good cause.

"Oh Kim says she's doing really well! Ever since she started wearing the t shirt advertising our new burgers sales have tripled!" Jill smiled eagerly.

I didn't really have the heart to tell Jill that Sunny had shrunk the shirt in the wash so it would cling to her breasts.

"That sounds great Jill, wait a second what is this?" I asked suspiciously poking something white and lumpy in my garden salad.

"Oh that? It looks like chicken.. Must have fallen in," Jill said and I just gagged.

"So Sunshine how was your first week of work?" Dad asked in a horribly cheerful tone of voice as I lay on my bed feeling my muscles slowly turning into mush.

I just stared at him.

"It must be so rewarding working for a global symbol like McDonalds, it must make you feel like you're really part of something, like a worker bee would feel in a hive" he continued.

"How long are you going to go on like this?" I asked wearily.

"When are you going to quit?" he asked.

"When I have enough money!" I snapped and he leaned against the door shooting me his best fatherly look.

"Dawn why do you have this desperate need to earn money? You buy all your clothes from thrift stores," he pointed out.

"I just..Need it" I sighed.

"You're not involved in something are you? It's not drugs is it?" he asked suspiciously.

"No it's not drugs!"

"Then what is it?" he asked and I rolled my eyes.

"FINE during a driving lesson Sunny and I accidentally trashed Ducky's car and now we're trying to earn enough cash to fix it up for him" I admitted and he rolled his eyes.

"Dawn that sounds like the most ridicules story I've ever heard, when you're ready to tell me the truth I'll be down stairs having a tea party with Gracie and Jeff" he said sounding deeply disappointed.

Parents were always like that, they were more then willing to believe you were a drug addict before they'd believe the truth.


	4. Chapter 4

Would you like fries with that? Chapter four.

A/N Here it is, chapter four! I don't own THE BSC OK? Got it? Good.

Also Lioness reviewed this story which delighted me considering how fantastic her fanfic is!

A month passed, a month of smelling like French fries, lying to my fellow members of the teen against meet club and putting up with Sunny using happy meal toys to flirt with boys during homeroom.

"I don't know how much longer I can take this," I said to Jill as I stared at the cash register trying to decipher the new menu.

"Oh cheer up Dawnie! You made the four week mark, most of the people who can't hack it quit before then" Jill beamed, today she was wearing her uniform which went nicely with the teddy bear barrettes she'd clipped onto her hair.

"I'm only here because I have to be, everything about this place disgusts me and I feel as if I've been dropped into my own personal hell," I groaned.

"Oh you're so funny Dawn!" Jill giggled and then she checked her watch.

"But if you're really getting tired we could go on our break now, things have gotten pretty quiet" she said eagerly.

Outside it was night although considering it was California the late winter air felt no colder then a light breeze.

Jill and I walked past Nick who was having an animated discussion with one of the cats behind the dumpster until we reached the outdoor eating area.

"So how's Gracie doing? Did she like the unicorn book I gave you?" Jill asked eagerly.

"She's been obsessed with tea parties ever since she fell asleep watching the mini series pride and prejudice with carol, she actually hits people if they use spoons the wrong way," I said.

"Oh my gosh that's so cute!" Jill squealed.

"Well that's one way of seeing it, of course it's funny when she forces Jeff to do it," I recalled wistfully and we were both silent for a moment listening to Nick throw a bottle at the cat.

Obviously their conversation hadn't gone well.

"So why are you here?" I finally asked and Jill blushed for a second.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Why are you working at McDonalds?" I asked and Jill glanced down at her fingernails.

"I'm trying to earn money for college, I mean dad doesn't really pay anything and mum doesn't make a lot," she admitted sounding very serious.

"Oh" I said understanding.

The ringing of my cell phone however interrupted the tense silence.

"You've got a cell?" Jill asked sounding astonished.

"I know it's terrible huh? Carol made me get it in case I'm ever raped or murdered in an alley way but lately people just use it to bug me" I sighed as I answered it.

"Dawn?" a voice asked and I had to do a mental cartwheel to try and place it.

"Ducky?" I finally guessed.

"Yeah it's me, so how's my favorite sweet sixteen year old going?" he asked and I glanced at Jill anxiously.

"Fine, I mean I'm doing good, what about you?" I asked wondering why Ducky had decided to call me out of the blue.

"Oh I'm doing ok" he trailed off and Jill leaned forward eagerly obviously wanting to know who was calling me.

"Um Ducky why are you calling me on the phone? In fact why are you calling me at all?" I asked.

"Oh I needed to ask you to ask Sunny something, she isn't taking my calls for some reason" he began and I sighed, it was always about Sunny.

"Ok what's the message?" I asked.

"Well you know when my car got totaled?" he asked and I winced.

"Yeah?"

"I think I left my Ipod on the back seat and I've been trying to find it for weeks, I rang up the auto wrecking yard and they said they'd sold the wreck to Seth Goldstein? Anyway it sounds like it was that guy from Vista that Sunny dated last year" Ducky began and I slowly nodded.

"You want me to ask her if she can get your Ipod back" I realized.

"Well it couldn't hurt, I mean it could be another Seth Goldstein who happens to live in Palo City but I may as well give it a shot before I splurge four hundred bucks on a new one" I heard him reflect and Jill began to tap her watch impatiently.

"Is that all you wanted?" I asked.

"Well yeah I mean what else would I want?" he asked.

"What else would you want." I echoed.

"Dawn are you ok? You sound a bit depressed" he began.

"I'm fine"

"Are you sure because you sound a bit off" he continued, the problem with Ducky was he was way to sensitive for his own good. Occasionally he tended to make up problems he thought we had and it never seemed to occur to him that we were allowed to be moody sometimes.

"Everything's cool Ducky, I got to get back to work"

"Since when do you work?" he asked and I glanced at Jill.

"For a few weeks now, I'll talk to you later" I said.

"Ok bye Dawn" he finished and I hung up.

Jill was still staring at me intently.

"So you're still pretty good friends with Ducky huh?" she asked me during our next shift as we attempted to clean out long ago dead French fries from underneath the deep fryer.

"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?" I asked and Jill just shrugged her shoulders.

"Well he goes to college now and you know how people tend to drift apart after high school" she reasoned carefully.

I knew that, after all I hardly ever spoke to the members of the band Vanish anymore ever since they'd broken up due to artistic differences.

"Well he still IM's me whenever he's online and Sunny's got him wrapped around his little finger" I explained and Jill grunted as she used the broom to dig out more grime.

"Uh huh" she said.

"And what does that mean?" I asked.

"So he still talks to you?"

"Sure he emails me all the time and he calls me as well," I admitted and she was giving me that look again, that intent knowing look.

"So a guy in college whom you were friends with when you were thirteen still calls you and emails you all the time?" she asked.

"Yeah.." I began trailing off.

"Does he have a girlfriend?" she suddenly asked.

"Not exactly, I mean he's dated a few people but it was never anything serious" I began and Jill smiled, it was the same smile she wore when she found the My Little Pony backpack at Walmart.

"Well it's nice to see that you two are still friends after such a long time and I'm sure he'll really appreciate what you're doing with his car" she smiled.

"Ducky's getting suspicious" Sunny hissed while I sorted through my locker some time later.

"Huh?" I asked not registering what she was saying.

"Ducky! He called me earlier asking about you" Sunny said folding her arms across her skintight white midriff top.

"Asking about me? Why would he call you to ask about me?" I asked feeling a bit surprised.

I'd known Ducky for three years and he would always call me because he was concerned about Sunny, it was never the other way around.

"He said that you told him that you were working, he thought you were having money troubles" Sunny began and I bashed my head against my locker door.

"God what is with that guy? He's way to into caring about our welfare! I swear to god if he devoted all his passion towards his friends towards the world he could end starvation, save the rainforest and plug up the hole in the ozone layer" I pointed out and Sunny giggled.

"Sorry I was imagining Ducky like literally plugging up the Ozone Layer" she smirked and I rolled my eyes, it seemed to me that girls got less mature when they started having sex.

"That is just so gross Sunny, did he say anything else?" I asked and she frowned for a second.

"Well he said one weird thing" she began.

"Hmm?" I muttered.

"He asked if you were happy" she finished with a shrug of her shoulders.

"You're right that is weird" I finished feeling puzzled, why would Ducky care about whether I was happy or not? I mean yeah he cared but only in the superficial way he cared about every one.

"Any way I covered for you, I told him you were saving up for your prom dress" Sunny said proud of her ability to lie with a completely straight face.

"I've done the figures and based upon Seth's quote and the amount of shifts you two have been doing you'll have enough to pay off the car in two months" Maggie said chewing on the end of her pen.

"Of course I could be completely wrong, I'm often wrong about everything," she reflected.

We were sitting in her room enjoying the vegetarian quiches the cook had whipped up for a light "after school" snack.

Sunny had already polished off half of them while licking her lips and crying out loudly that she was happy to eat anything that didn't come out of a deep fryer.

"Two months? Can't we do it any quicker?" I groaned.

"Well I've looked at your school schedules and your exam time tables several times, so unless you want to give up on school and sleep you're stuck" Maggie said.

"Wait a second? You looked at our school schedules?" I asked.

"We have school schedules?" Sunny remarked a faintly surprised expression on her face.

"Well yeah, how do you know what classes to go to?" Maggie asked Sunny.

"Oh I just wander around until I run into the vice principal, he always seems to know where I should be" Sunny said airily.

"Any way why are you looking at our schedules?" I asked and Maggie slowly blinked.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm turning this whole experience into my major project for my finance class" she informed us.

"Oh"

"I'm even considering investing in several shares, my dads company is doing really well" Maggie added thoughtfully.

"Sure, whatever, just make sure we have enough to pay for the car" Sunny said wagging her finger at Maggie.

"If the shares you well you'll have enough money to buy a new car" Maggie said smugly and then her crippling depression consumed her again.

"Of course it won't go well, nothing goes well for me, that would make a good angst filled poem actually" she added as an after thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Would you like fries with that: Chapter Five.

A/N: The soundtrack for this chapter came from the movie " The Blues Brothers" and I don't own the California diaries series!

By the end of the second month I'd gotten so used to working at MacDonald's that I barely blinked an eye when I had to get slaughtered dead cows out of the freezer. The Teen's Against Eating Meat club however saw things differently.

"Dawn" Marcie Brown said as I walked into our after school meeting and I was suddenly aware that every one in the room was staring at me.

"Marcie" I shot back warily brushing a speck of dust off my tsunami crisis wave aide t-shirt.

"Dawn recently we've received several disturbing reports," she said seriously.

"About battery hens?" I asked hopefully and Marcie's personal yes man David jumped forward holding onto several sheets of paper.

They all showed photos that had been taken on a camera phone, photos of me working at MacDonald's.

"Care to explain?" Marcie asked folding her arms.

"It's not what it looks like" I began.

"It looks like you're working for an organization that promotes animal cruelty and SLAUGHTER," she screeched.

"Oh come on it's not like I'm eating dead cow! I needed the money," I protested.

"If you needed money so badly then why did you decide to work for them? There are plenty of health food restaurants in the city," she snapped.

"Yes and they're all run by stupid stoners who never hire teenagers" I pointed out.

Marcie's mouth opened with outrage.

"How dare you insult the health food industry in such a cocky manner! I hate to do this Dawn but I'm going to have to suspend you from the club until you come to your senses" she said pressing her lips together.

"Suspend me? But I'm the hardest worker in this club! I was the one who organized the trip to Spain last year to protest against the running of the bulls" I cried.

" We can't have you here tarnishing our reputation, hand over your " We Hate Carnivores" badge now" she said holding out her hand and I felt tears of injustice gather in my eyes.

"Fine" I choked ripping the badge off my knapsack.

"This whole fucking society will be run into the ground without me!" I choked as I marched out of the room the door slamming behind me.

"It's not that bad" Jill said soothingly patting my shoulder.

"Yes it is! I was one of the founding members of the club" I choked tears streaming down my face.

"Well if they're going to act so crazy about a job then maybe you should stay away from them, there's having a social conscience and then there's just being crazy" Jill said handing me a MacDonald's napkin and I blew my nose noisily.

"Maybe I should just quit" I choked.

"But then what about Ducky's car?" Jill asked and I sighed.

"But I feel like I'm betraying who I am Jill! Have you ever felt like that?" I asked and Jill glanced down at her lap.

"Remember the first week of high school? When you guys ran off to the party and I didn't tell mom?" she asked and I shook my head miserably.

"Well I felt like I was betraying myself when I did that, but sometimes our friends are more important then our own selfish needs" she said wisely.

"Jill that was the smartest thing you've ever said" I choked.

"I didn't get the assistant managers position based on my sultry good looks," she laughed and I looked up when Sunny entered the kitchen dressed in a denim mini skirt and a bright pink sequined boob tube.

"Sunny you're only supposed to come back here when you're working" Jill said tiredly and Sunny hopped up onto the kitchen bench swinging her long tanned legs.

"I'm picking Dawn up," she said airily.

"Since when? You can't even drive," I pointed out.

"Maggie's driving us because I found this," she said reaching into her straw bag.

"You found an Ipod? You should tell the police!" Jill cried staring at the tiny silver mp3 player.

"Relax Jill, it belongs to Ducky," I said and Nick who was chopping tomatoes stared at Sunny as if she held the secrets of the universe between her legs.

Knowing Sunny she probably did.

"You mean we're going to go return it right now? Couldn't we just mail it to him?" I asked wearily.

"You're going to trust the US postal service with an IPOD? It'll only take half an hour to get there Dawn! We'll be back long before your curfew" Sunny said and Jill attentively raised her hand.

"Can I come to?" she asked.

"You want to come with us to a college? You do know that in college people have sex and drink, sometimes at the same time" Sunny said and Jill hesitated for a moment before nodding firmly.

"Dawn and I finish at the same time and I've got nothing else to do tonight, besides I want to meet Ducky properly" Jill said defiantly.

"Fine but don't blame me when you turn into a crack whore" Sunny said and then her eyes flickered towards Nick.

"So Nick is that a quarter pounder in your pants or are you just happy to see me?" she grinned.

My brother once told me that you could tell a lot about a person based on what they stored on their Ipod. For example if it was filled with nothing but angry Marilyn Manson and Gwar music then you'd know that the next time you saw them you should just back away slowly. Or if their play list had nothing but Hillary Duff and The Back street boys you were either dealing with a twelve-year-old girl, a very gay guy or Jill.

Sunny wasted no time telling Maggie's driver to plug Ducky's Ipod into the car, being rich Maggie had all the attachments needed.

"Sunny that is Ducky's private property" I pointed out tirelessly.

"Please! He wasn't upset that time I borrowed his toothbrush so why would he be upset about this?" Sunny pointed out as we climbed into the back of Maggie's limo.

Maggie had offered to drive us to Ducky's campus because she claimed her life was so pathetic she had nothing else to do, personally I thought she just wanted to get out of baby sitting her drunk mother.

"You borrowed his toothbrush?" Jill squeaked and Maggie glanced at Jill a surprised expression on her face.

"Jill, shouldn't you be off coloring in pictures of unicorns?" she asked adjusting her hip black-framed reading glasses.

"Shouldn't you be off writing poetry about your cut up arm?" Jill asked with a perfectly innocent expression on her face and Maggie's expression froze, she then grudgingly gave Jill a small smile.

"Nice to see you're still not a total baby, even if you do wear your hair in pigtails" Maggie mused and as the car drove away from McDonalds the Ipod took over the stereo system.

"Holy shit! Do you know what this is?" Maggie yelled her face growing even paler.

"A punk version of the song Soul Man by The Blues Brothers" Jill grinned.

"Yeah it's a punk cover Vanish did right before we broke up, Rico wanted us to record it for his mother" Maggie gasped and I realized it was her singing on the Ipod.

"But I thought that Bruce set fire to all those Vanish CD's after he and Rico had that massive blow out?" I asked and Maggie slowly nodded.

"I thought he did as well, Ducky must have saved one," I said and Sunny had already climbed up onto her seat sticking her head out of the roof.

"Coming to yah on a dusty road, good loving I got a truck load! And when you get it you got something so don't you worry cause I'm coming! I'm a soul man," she sang along to the music and Jill screeched with horror while Maggie and I took this in calmly.

"Shouldn't we make her get down?" Jill hissed.

"She does this every time we play rock music in the limo, don't worry she'll get down as soon as we hit the tunnel" Maggie said her expression still tense.

"He probably had a burned CD lying in his stink filled house and then he uploaded it onto his Ipod with everything else" I said to Maggie and she angrily shook her head.

"Did you know how it felt when I thought Bruce destroyed everything?" Maggie asked and I slowly nodded thinking of the time Sunny nearly burned down my kitchen.

"I just can't believe he had this all this time and he never said anything!" she snapped.

"Ducky's had his Ipod for ages Maggie and they hold over ten thousand songs, he probably completely forgot about it" I said patting her hand.

"Why is she so upset?" Jill asked but her words were cut off as Sunny reached down and dragged Jill reluctantly up by her hand.

"Sing it with me Jill" she cried happily and Maggie and I shared an amused look.

"I don't know the words," Jill protested weekly.

"The chorus is I'm a soul man! How hard is that?" Sunny pointed out and then she suddenly screeched.

"I can see an SUV we need to flash in protest girls!" Sunny cried and there was a rustling sound as Sunny's boob tube fell onto the cars floor.

Maggie just rolled her eyes, Sunny had come up with the flashing SUV protest idea when she turned fifteen and her boobs graduated to a C cup. Her theory was that her chest was so good it would cause any male driver to break in shock and any female driver to break out of sheer jealousy, thus causing the car to spin out of control and crash.

I'd given her a stern lecture about auto safety and she'd agreed only to do it when she saw a car that was particularly dangerous for the environment.

So far she'd successfully caused eighteen SUV's to be taken off the road, in a small way I was almost proud of her.

Jill gave a horrified scream, which was coupled by the squealing sound of breaks as the SUV spun off the road.

"Lets hope he didn't get the drivers license and registration" Maggie muttered darkly as I handed Sunny her shirt.

Sunny and I had been to Ducky's college once in the past, after all we were the closest thing he had to best friends ever since Alex was sent to the psychiatric ward. The last time we came was when we helped him move into his dorm after his brother flaked out on him again. His roommate a fat party animal named Seb had called us Ducky's hot little sisters and we'd both freaked out.

Even Sunny had some standards.

The dorms however seemed different at night, Maggie had made her driver drop us off a block away but even there we could see all the people spilling out onto the lawn.

"Great there's a party going on and I'm wearing my worst pair of underwear," Sunny said trotting along in her inch high heels.

"You're not going to hook up with some guy Sunny, we're here to give the Ipod back and then you're going to work and Jill and I are going to go home" I said firmly.

"Like any one would want to hook up with you anyway, you smell like hamburgers" Sunny grumbled.

"Hey I resent that! I changed out of uniform," I said gesturing to my loose light blue beaded Kafka and my baggy denim jeans.

"Doesn't get rid of the smell, trust me you need a pumice stone to get it out" Jill said, after work she'd changed into a bright pink t-shirt with the word princess written across the front in glitter but she was still wearing her navy blue work pants.

"Or you could go for a full body tissue scrub, now where's Ducky's dormitory?" Maggie asked glancing around the party an annoyed expression on her face.

"It's the Freeman building, past the make shift stage" I said gesturing to the enthusiastic punk rock concert that happened to be going on around a hundred feet away.

"You know this band isn't all that bad if you like the whole screaming about anarchy thing, very sex pistols" said Maggie the music expert as we pushed our way through the mosh pit.

Some how in the chaos Sunny had managed to get her hands on a Vodka Cruiser and she handed it to Jill.

"Is this like Soda pop?" Jill asked.

"Sure it is" lied Sunny and Jill took a swig.

"They may be okay but right now they're stopping us from getting to the dorms and that's pissing me off" I said pushing past a Goth girl in a black corset.

"Can you please get out of my way?" I growled and she glared down at me.

"Bite me freshmen" she replied sticking out her pierced tongue.

"I don't think so, I'm not a lesbian" I shot back.

"Could have fooled me," she snarled her gaze lingering on my friends.

"What's going on here? Oh it's an angry Goth attack" Maggie said her eyes falling on the girl.

"And what is that supposed to mean princess?" asked the girl who for the purposes of this story will be referred to as the angry Goth.

"Please I went through a Goth cutters phase once and you're not fooling anybody, I know you have this whole tougher then brick image to maintain but that doesn't give you the right to push my friend down when she's asking a polite question" Maggie said raising her eye brows.

"You're lesbian friend was asking if she could push upfront and I've been camping out here since noon! I nearly ruined my pallor for this position!" the angry Goth snarled.

"Please we don't want to get up close we just want to get to the dorms," Jill asked looking on the verge of tears.

"Why don't you go fuck yourself baby blue because nobody else will" the angry Goth snarled and some one grabbed her on the shoulder.

"Have you got some kind of problem with these ladies Celestina?" asked a tall guy in a Shrek mask.

"These conformist pigs were disrespecting me and my life style choices" she sneered.

"We were not! We just wanted her to move!" I yelled, Sunny who had been off flirting with a random hairy guy in a green peace shirt returned a confused expression on her face.

"Do we know these people?" she whispered to Maggie.

"Gucci over here mocked my beliefs," the angry Goth growled.

Oh honestly shut the fuck up before my fathers security team gets you killed" Maggie said in a bored tone of voice.

"That's it bitch!" The angry Goth cried and she plunged towards Maggie her black lace skirts flying.

Thankfully Maggie had taken Thai kick boxing exercise classes with her mother for nearly two years and she sent out a great flying kick with one dainty high-heeled encased shoe.

Within seconds the two girls were fighting and I stood there completely horrified.

Maggie never ever fought anyone; she was too obsessed with her own insecurities for that.

"Should we help them?" I asked the guy in the Shrek mask as Jill ran off to find Maggie's driver and Sunny ran off to find a guy big enough to pull them apart.

"Celestina does this at every single party we go to, the universities security will be here soon" he said his voice slightly muffled and I saw two fat guys in blue shirts arrive in a golf cart.

"Ah here they are," he laughed as if he found this funny, by now Maggie had successfully ripped off the girls black studded belt and was hitting her on the head with it while screaming

"You're not hard core!" it took both guards to drag her off.

Maggie was arrested, thankfully by the universities security as apposed to the real police.

They'd mistaken her for a student and they locked her up in their security office, Celestina had been locked up in their bathroom.

Jill wanted us to explain that Maggie was technically not a student but then Sunny pointed out that if we did that the security team might call the actual police.

The guy in the Shrek mask told us they'd let her go if we paid the three hundred dollar fine other wise she'd have to wait until her student advisor showed up and considering Maggie didn't have a student advisor we decided this was the best course of action.

Which was why I was sitting outside the security office while Sunny and Jill ran off to find an ATM machine.

Thankfully I wasn't alone, but I wasn't sure if the guy in the Shrek mask was such a good companion.

"What's with the Shrek mask?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"I accidentally glued it onto my face and it won't come off" He laughed putting on a fake Scottish accent that sounded better then Mike Myers.

"You accidentally glued a mask to your face?" I asked.

"Well technically my room mate did it, we were all going to wear masks to this concert right and he decided it would be hysterically funny to pour crazy glue on mine" he said.

"You should wipe down the sides with mentholated spirits, that's what I did when Jackie once glued a bird feeder to his face" I advised him.

"Jackie?" he asked.

"This kid I used to baby sit in my mothers home town, he had a habit of sticking random objects onto his face" I said.

"All kids go through that"

"He once managed to glue a live duck onto his back," I recalled.

"Ok that makes him a little different" Shrek admitted and then he cocked his head to one side.

"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked and I raised my eyebrows, he must have sussed out that I wasn't a student.

"Returning an Ipod" I explained, my dad had warned me about college guys but this one wasn't drunk and seemed relatively ok, besides we were outside the security booth.

"That's nice of you, most people would have bought a new one" the Shrek guy mused and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah but the guy who owns it happens to be one of my best friends plus I'm wracked with guilt because I accidentally crashed his car" I admitted and the Shrek mask bobbed to one side it's enraged expression looking curious.

Later on Sunny would ask me why I told a guy in a Shrek mask, who happened to be a complete stranger everything that happened and yet some how I did.

Maybe it was the whole mask thing, or maybe I just needed to tell some one who wouldn't accuse me of being a capitalist like my father.

"You see he was teaching us how to drive and I distracted my other best friend causing the car to crash" I admitted.

"It's hardly your fault, he should have anticipated that you two were in experienced" Shrek replied and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Maybe, I got a job to pay for the damages at McDonalds," I said with a small shudder.

"Ugh rough, my first casual job was at a book store" the masked ogre replied and I sighed.

"Yes well it really sucks for me because I'm a vegetarian," I explained and I expected him to laugh but instead there was the tiniest intake of breath.

"So you went against your moral beliefs to help your friend?" he asked.

"I guess so," I admitted and there was a thoughtful silence.

"That's… that's pretty cool," he muttered in a very tiny voice and the familiar jingling sound of Sunny's metal bangles distracted me.

"We got the money" she greeted me and her eyes fell on the guy in the Shrek mask.

"Anyway Maggie's driver says we have to go as soon as we pay the fine" she said her eyes returning to me.

"Thanks for listening, why were you wearing that Shrek mask anyway?" I asked and the Shrek guy shrugged his shoulders.

"Because I have many layers" he replied and I shook my head a small smile on my face.

We never found Ducky, Sunny ended up putting the Ipod into his mail slot, which really made the whole trip pointless. But at least we'd finally gotten Jill out into the real world and Maggie seemed rather pleased with her self especially when her driver called her father.

Sunny and I suspected that she got into trouble on purpose, sometimes Maggie seemed to have trouble distinguishing between positive and negative attention.

As we drove back to Palo City I smiled with bemusement as Sunny told anyone who would listen that I was in love with a cartoon character, for a moment everything seemed ok.

The next day we were told that while we were out arsonists had burned the McDonald's restaurant to the ground.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N Just a quick chapter really, I've very busy with university work so this will be my only update for at least a week and a half, sorry!

Anyway once again thank you for all your lovely reviews!

CHAPTER SIX.

My father woke me up that morning, this was quite a shock considering the last time I'd woken up with dad in my face was way back when I traveled across America in an SUV.

"Dad it's six AM"I groaned staring at my world animal foundation alarm clock.

"Uh huh but we've got something important to discuss" he said almost bouncing with happiness.

"Dad I'm not going to watch the sun rise with you while dancing in the Winslow's garden, make Gracie do it" I moaned burying myself back into my bedclothes.

"Sunshine we only ever do that on Midsummer's day, this is far more important" he said and he tossed something at my head.

It was the morning newspaper.

"There better be an add in their about a sale at Indian Fox" I shot back glaring at him.

"Read it!" he crowed clapping his hands together and I turned my attention to the newspapers cover.

"McDonald's restaurant set alight, six people injured, one dead, arsonists suspected," I read skimming the front page.

I stopped reading and I dropped the newspaper onto the floor.

"Now my baby girl won't need to slave away for capitalists anymore!" he cried wrapping me up in a bear hug.

"Jill's devastated," Sunny announced as I walked into school still feeling vaguely shaken up.

Six people were injured and one person had died, all because of a fire at my restaurant.

Would the first have started if we'd stayed an extra half an hour? Would we have spotted the arsonist?

I was so distracted by those thoughts that I was nearly late for school, I ended up running out the door wearing Carol's black jacket and I didn't even realize until I reached into the pocket and pulled out a packet of birth control pills.

"Devastated? Are we talking devastated over the season finale of Kim Possible devastated or her dog has just died devastated?" I asked referring to two past incidents, Sunny looked thoughtful.

" The dog one" she finally said.

"Oh crap, you better take me to her" I sighed.

Vista despite preaching a message of tolerance was highly clique rated so when you wanted to cry you better make sure you cried in the right place.

For example only suicidal Goths cried on the roof, this was mainly because it made suicide attempts easier. The shallow plastic girls tended to cry in the nice second floor bathroom so they could throw up their feelings, As for the rest of us, when you wanted to cry you tended to do it in the Sweet Valley High section at the library, no self respecting girl ever read the books so it was generally speaking deserted.

Jill was hunched over "Jessica and the Christmas ghost" tears streaking down her face, everything about her looked miserable.

Even her butterfly barrettes looked depressed.

"Kim and Nick are in the hospital" she choked I placed Crazy Nick instantly but it took me a few moments to realize who Kim was.

"Kim as in the manager? But last night was her night off" I pointed out.

"She tried to kill herself when she heard the news! Apparently she bet the manager of the Palo City McDonald's that we could sell more quarter pounders in one week and now we have no chance" Jill sniffed digging into her purse for her love heart covered hankie.

"That's a stupid reason to commit suicide, I mean it's not like she hypothetically slept with her sisters boyfriend or something" I pointed out.

"The bet was for over sixteen thousand dollars," Jill cried and when she saw our startled look she sighed.

"We were going to win! Every one prefers our McDonald's because junkie's shoot up in the other one! Kim was going to give every one five hundred dollar Christmas bonuses" she admitted.

"And now she's suicidal? What did she do?" I asked.

"When she saw the smoking remains of the restaurant she ran inside before the fire men could stop her, when they found her she'd already drunk four gallons of melted ice cream from the burnt soft serve cone machine, they had to pump her stomach" Jill said and I winced, death by sugared creamed pig fat wasn't pretty.

"And Nick?" I asked and Jill shook her head.

"Second degree burns mostly," Jill said and then she wiped her eyes.

"Maybe we could make them a gift basket," Sunny said.

"One that has a card that reads "sorry McDonalds drove you to suicide?" I asked and Sunny shook her shoulders helplessly.

"I feel like this is all my fault! I should have checked all the grills before I left! Done a complete security check," Jill moaned.

"Jill the newspaper said it was arsonists and you cant control lunatics who decide to torch buildings" I said patting her arm and Sunny gently took away the now tear stained Sweet Valley high book.

"If I'd been there I would have been able to put the fire out Dawn! I should have never left Nick back there alone, we all know what he's like" Jill cried and Sunny sighed.

"That's it we're ditching class and going to the hospital, Jill wont stop crying until that lunatic Nick has reassured her that this wasn't her fault" Sunny said firmly.

"Oh no we cant blow off gym!" Jill cried.

"Jill it's either blowing of Gym or spending all day wallowing with guilt, which do you prefer? Sunny snapped and Jill blew her nose again noisily and seemed to consider her options.

"The first one" she admitted.

I'd always had mixed feelings about our local hospital, people often hate the hospital their friends died in but it's hard to feel that way when you're baby sister was born their as well.

It occurred to me that neither Sunny nor I had come back since her mother had died but the nurses still recognized us.

"Dawn Schafer is that you? God you haven't been here for years!" one of the nurses in reception, a fat black woman named Rhonda said as soon as we approached the front desk.

I recognized Rhonda mainly because she tended to mistake me for Mrs. Winslow's daughter.

"We're here to see Nick Statz, Rhonda, he would have been brought in this morning," I said cutting her off and Sunny glared at her openly.

"Sure he's in room 89B in the Katherine Hepburn ward!" Rhonda said after consulting her computer.

"Remember me Rhonda?" Sunny asked with a small tight smile.

"Aren't you that booty girl from that 50 cent video? The one who was in here last week after you trashed your motorbike?" Rhonda asked thoughtfully.

"Booty girl, what does Sunny have to do with treasure?" Jill mused as I dragged them both away.

Nick was sharing a room with an old man who smelt like urine and a sleeping kid whose leg was in a cast. We both walked past the old man trying to ignore the smell until we reached Nick who was sitting upright on his bed, next to the window.

"Hello Nick, it's Sunny! You know the girl whose legs you keep checking out at work," Sunny said with forced cheerfulness.

Nick said nothing, he was too busy drawing something all over his sheets with a black felt tip pen he'd gotten somewhere.

"We came to visit you Nick" Jill said.

"And we brought you some chocolates" I added and Sunny coughed.

"Carob chocolates" I corrected myself.

Still Nick said nothing, by now he was jabbing the pen into the sheet so violently it was causing ink to seep into the mattress.

I stepped closer to inspect the drawing, it was a symbol drawn over and over again.

The same shape, a sun with a tiny star drawn in the center.

"Nick what happened last night?" Jill asked attentively and Nick finally turned to her wild-eyed.

"I saw her die," he said in a perfectly calm tone of voice and I secretly wished I had a weapon on me, which was odd considering I was a pacifist.

"Saw who die?" Sunny asked and then Nick's hands brush against the drawings on the sheets.

"I don't have to talk to any of you, go away now before I call the nurse," he said and I glared at him.

"We were just trying to be friendly," I pointed out and he growled deep within his throat before throwing the pen at Jill's head.

We took that as our cue to exit.

" I wonder who died" Sunny said as we sat outside the hospital waiting for the 863 bus.

"Probably the person in the newspaper, the article said that there was one death" I muse.

"It's odd that some one actually died, I mean it's not like people were trapped or anything, McDonald's has exits" Jill said and then she trailed off.

"Unless of course the time lock was activated, how many people were injured?" she asked.

"Six" I said from memory and Jill frowned as if thinking about a puppy being abused.

"That's not right, if McDonald's was open there should have been more people," she said and then she got up brushing down her bright pink denim skirt.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To find a copy of the paper" she called over her shoulder.

Jill explained the situation to us as soon as we got back to school, just in time for lunch.

"The article says here that firemen pulled out six injured McDonald's employee's, and one dead employee," Jill said.

"Ugh gross, what's the point Jill?" Sunny asked.

"It says six uniforms! After Dawn and I left there were only four people working in the restaurant" Jill said putting down the newspaper.

"You're right! Kim never rosters more then four people after midnight, she does it to save money," Sunny who always took the late shift said.

"So that's three employee's who shouldn't have been there, along with one who happens to be dead" I said and Jill slowly nodded.

"Nick wouldn't have noticed if our appearances suddenly changed, the boys completely out of it" Jill said.

"But he would have noticed something, he's not that stupid" I replied thinking of the drawing scrawled all over the sheets.

My mom had once said that I was far too nosy for my own good, and constantly obsessed with seeing criminals and mysteries everywhere.

When she'd told me this right after I'd foiled a ring of dog nappers I'd felt vaguely insulted but now I thought that maybe she was right.

After all fires were in the end just fires and yet I couldn't stop myself from suspecting that something was very wrong.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Our profiles have this nifty new feature where you can see how many hits a story has.**

**This story has had over 1000 hits and yet only 20 reviews, wow I'm not sure how I feel about that.**

**Chapter Seven: The Big Date.**

**No one worked that night, the district manager was scrambling to find us all placements at different restaurants and we'd know where we were going by the following Monday.**

**Jill seemed to take it hard after all there was no guarantee that we'd all be working together again.**

**I wasn't sure how I was taking it at all, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong; I'd been a babysitting detective after all.**

**My list of subjects ranged from the manager of our rival restaurant to the crazy old lady who ordered apple pies and even Nick himself.**

**None of them however made much sense.**

"**Hey Dawn is it true that the guy from your restaurant went nuts and killed a bunch of people?" Jeff asked dumping his book bag onto his bed. Being thirteen meant that Jeff was an eighth grader at Vista, it was weird having him in the same building as me and we spent the majority of our time ignoring each other.**

**Except for when he wanted to borrow money off me to bet on the racing hamsters they kept in the detention room.**

"**Yes Jeff it's absolutely true, the guy from my restaurant decided today would be the perfect day to commit mass murder" I replied dryly.**

"**You're not fun when you're sarcastic, what really happened?" Jeff asked.**

"**Ok first things first I know you've been climbing around that house they're building two blocks away so I want you to get your slimy boots off my hand made Indian Tribal rug" I said pointing at his feet and he rolled his eyes reluctantly before tearing his boots off.**

"**It was a fire Jeff, the people died in a fire," I explained.**

"**Was it a terrorist fire?" Jeff asked hopefully.**

"**NO!"**

"**Well that's boring then" Jeff said sounding gravely injured and then he perked up.**

"**So have you been to the smoking building?" he asked and I rolled my eyes.**

"**Unlike you and your friends not every one is obsessed with climbing around dangerous falling apart buildings" I said wearily.**

"**What happened to you Dawn? You used to climb around secret passages in Stoneybrook! You used to be cool" Jeff sniffed.**

"**Oh yeah being dumb enough to think that a ghost happens to be haunting my house when it turned out to be Nicky Pike, real cool" I replied rolling my eyes.**

"**Oh come on you have to be curious! My friend Shaun says that the playground equipments like melted into this weird rainbow glob" Jeff said eagerly.**

"**Your friend Shaun happens to be an idiot" I snapped, this was after all a kid who was so dumb he mistook a telephone booth for a portable toilet.**

"**Dawn" he begged me and then I heard the ominous sound of Gracie getting out the tea party set my grandparents had bought me during the eighties.**

"**Jeff PLAY" a voice screamed from her bedroom and Jeff shot me a pleading look.**

**I thought of how many times my brother had been forced to play "pretty ladies" with Gracie, the first time had been funny but now it was just sad.**

"**Climb out the window and I'll meet you out front" I replied.**

**When you lived in a town like Stoneybrook a burning down restaurant was considered something of a novelty, the adults most likely would have called a town meeting about it.**

**Palo City however was only twenty minutes away from LA so generally speaking people had lives.**

**Twenty-four hours later the burnt remains of McDonalds were deserted, the only evidence that anyone even cared was a broken line of police tape blowing forlornly in the wind.**

**The playground equipment looked like a cross between a Dali painting and a melted cheeseburger, Claudia would have loved it.**

"**Cool! I'm going to see if there are any burned happy meal toys!" Jeff cried and before I could stop him he jumped over the police tap and ran into the burned out remains.**

"**Oh for the love of god" I replied running after him.**

**Inside the damage wasn't too bad, sure the walls were covered in thick oily black sludge and the oven was completely destroyed but oddly enough the menu was still in perfect condition.**

"**I wonder if their ghosts are here," Jeff muttered.**

"**Huh?"**

"**You know the people who died" he replied rolling his eyes and I shivered.**

"**Only one person died," I reminded him.**

"**Is this where you work? God it's so tiny" Jeff said jumping over the counter.**

"**Jeff get back here right now before the building collapses on top of us," I hissed fearfully.**

"**If it hasn't fallen apart by now it's not going to" Jeff called from the back room.**

**The back room smelled strongly like burnt hamburger meat and I felt like gagging. Our lockers that we were supposed to guard with our lives were all burned; the doors had been warped in the heat.**

**I could actually see Sunny's locker with contained a charred copy of "Advanced Yoga" and the remains of her favorite orange hot pants.**

**Jeff was pouring over a bag of partially burned toys when I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket.**

"**Hello?" I asked.**

"**I see you comb your hair and give me that grin, it's making me spin now I'm spinning within" a voice sang and I knew instantly who it was.**

**The song being sung was "How do you do?" by Roxette and it was a code word Ducky Sunny and I sat up, basically if they sung that it meant they had something private and important to tell us.**

**Sunny had come up with the code after her father started using a police radio to scan her cell phone calls.**

"**Jeff's here," I pointed out.**

"**I can't answer you unless you sing the code back," Ducky pointed out and I rolled my eyes.**

"**She's so mean but I don't care I love her eyes and her wild wild hair" I said back, reciting the chorus from the song Wild Wild West.**

**Ducky had an eighties fixation, every time I teased him about it he would then remind me that once upon a time I'd owned a Hanson CD.**

" **Hey Dawn I found your name tag!" I heard Jeff cry.**

"**Your name tag?" Ducky asked.**

"**I'm at work," I explained.**

"**And you took Jeff with you?" he asked and Jeff yanked open the fridge doors peering into the gloom.**

"**Is that Ducky? Tell him he owes me fifty dollars" Jeff said.**

"**You owe my brother fifty dollars?" I asked.**

"**I was stupid enough to play Quake against him in IRC" Ducky asked and I raised my eyebrows, I knew perfectly well that Quake was some kind of online video game but I had no idea my brother and my male best friend were gambling over it.**

"**Jeff stay away from those boxes! I'm not digging you out of a pile of burnt frozen French fries," I hissed.**

"**Burned what?" Ducky asked and I cursed myself, I'd forgotten to cover the mouthpiece.**

"**Ducky what do you want?" I asked and Jeff cried out as a box collapsed on top of him.**

"**How do you feel about performance artists?" he asked.**

"**As long as they're sending out an environmental message I'll support them" I said using my free hand to dig Jeff out, he was covered in slushy partially melted French fries.**

"**Well I know one who wants to go out with you, he says he met you at my campus last night" Ducky continued.**

"**You mean the guy in the Shrek mask?" I asked.**

"**That sounds about right, he's name is Malcolm Brady and he lives in my building" Ducky continued, normally I was firmly against setting anybody up because it went against free will and a woman's right to choose her own date.**

**However it had been over seven months since my last date (a guy from Palo City high who was a member of Peta, he dumped me when I ate cheese in front of him).**

"**Well he seemed ok when I met him" I admitted reluctantly.**

"**So you'll go out with him?" he asked and Jeff rolled to one side coughing up several French fries.**

"**Sure, why not?" I asked cheerfully and then I paused.**

**Something had been drawn in the ashes underneath where Jeff's head had been a second before, it was a little smudged but it still resembled a sun with a star drawn in the center.**

**For a second I was sure I could hear something move, but it might have just been Jeff.**

"**I have to go Ducky, email me the details," I said hanging up and I turned to Jeff.**

**The uneasy feeling that had started ever since I'd returned from the hospital had bloomed into a full-scale paranoid attack.**

"**Lets get out of here" I hissed.**

**I tried to forget about the creepy symbol and the mystery in general as I talked to Sunny about my upcoming date.**

"**Now no pressure Dawn but your chances of loosing your virginity before you turn forty rely entirely on this date" Sunny said somberly to me.**

**Sunny and I were in the autoshop waiting for Maggie to finish negotiating our down payment with Seth.**

"**Right good point" I admitted, I was hopeless when it came to dating and I always had been. It was funny how I could easily star in school musicals as Wendy or hold lectures about endangered baby seals but when it came to first dates I tended to fall apart.**

"**It's amazing that this guy wants to go out with you, I mean when he saw you your hair was a greasy mess and you were wearing that ugly hippy shirt" Sunny added.**

"**Thanks a lot" I growled.**

"**Oh come on we both looked pretty gross the other night and no offence Dawn but if you want to keep him interested I suggest you break out the big guns" Sunny said her eyes traveling down to my chest.**

**For two years I'd spent my life with a modest b-cup chest then suddenly when I turned fifteen my chest seemed to explode overnight.**

**Nobody noticed at first, generally because I tended to wear big loose peasant blouses because I thought that showing off my assets was disgusting and sexist.**

**Then Carol finally noticed I was straining in my yoga leotard and after a bra refitting it was discovered that when I wore the correct size I was a d-cup.**

**I'd been so humiliated; at Vista if you were a d-cup the student body assumed you'd had a boob job.**

**Only Sunny knew about my true cup size, it was hidden from the world under flowing tops and sundresses.**

"**The big guns?" I asked doubtfully my eyes traveling downwards.**

"**I'm thinking tight, sheer and you should probably wear a bra that actually lifts and separates," she said.**

"**You're not talking about the black push up bra are you?" I asked and Sunny grinned.**

**The black push up bra had a complicated story behind it, it had once belonged to Sunny who had fallen in love with but had never bothered to try it on.**

**Of course it didn't fit, and a stricken Sunny refused to return it because she couldn't imagine the worlds most perfect bra being worn by some "random skank" instead she'd given it to me.**

**I tried it on once stared at my reflection in the mirror and then firmly shoved it into the depths of my underwear drawer where I kept all the kitten print night gowns Mary Anne kept giving me for Christmas.**

**Now however it had resurfaced and I walked into the Fiesta Grill feeling as if I'd completely sold out.**

**My outfit was a Sunny and Maggie creation; I hadn't purchased any nice new clothes for myself in ages.**

**The clothes belonged to Maggie, Maggie's weight tended to change so rapidly she had entire guest rooms filled with clothes that were currently either too small or too big. I was currently wearing one of her "I'm confident with my curves and who I am outfits" that she'd fitted into when she was fifteen.**

**It consisted of a dark purple gauzy shirt and a pair of black tailored slacks. My make up and hair however had been done by Sunny, she'd curled my hair so it had a wavy classic Hollywood screen siren look to it, it had taken five hours to do and she'd gone through three tubes of barb wire sculpting gel.**

**She'd then painted my face with a huge amount of eyeliner and lip-gloss; I refused to put them on until she proved that they hadn't been tested on animals.**

**Needless to say that when I walked into the restaurant I felt incredibly self conscious, it was even worse when the waiter kept shooting me the sort of looks Sunny usually got. Then finally my self-confidence was completely shattered when I saw my date.**

**I had to admit that I had spent the past twenty-four hours fantasizing about what he might look like underneath the mask.**

**I already knew he wasn't fat so unless he had a serious case of acne or a gigantic nose I was sure that he'd be at least moderately attractive.**

**Besides none of that was important as long as he had a wonderful personality.**

**But I still wanted to know what he looked like.**

**Unfortunately he was still wearing the Shrek mask.**

"**Hello?" I asked.**

"**Hey! It's Dawn right? Ducky told me you were coming," he said gesturing to the seat.**

"**Haven't you managed to get the mask off yet?" I asked and he cocked his head to one side.**

"**What mask?"**

"**The one you're wearing" I pointed out slowly sitting in my seat.**

"**I'm not wearing a mask!" he said sounding confused.**

"**Yes you are, you're wearing a Shrek mask on your face" I said reaching towards the menu.**

"**Well of course this happens to be my face, I am Shrek after all," he said and my eyes slowly widened.**

"**Shrek is a fairy tale character," I pointed out.**

"**An Ogre actually, but don't let that put you off because I'm a fantastic cook" he continued.**

**Palo City had it's fair share of eccentric performance artists so although I was a little nervous I wasn't exactly afraid, for all I knew he could have been getting into character for some big production.**

**That was until I felt something cold and slimy touch my ankle.**

**I glanced underneath the table, and a small Jack Russell dog grinned back at me.**

**Some one had hung a sign around its neck saying " Donkey".**

"**You're not supposed to bring animals in here" I said my voice sounding very far away.**

"**He wont shut up if we leave him outside, won't you Donkey?" Malcolm asked sounding faintly annoyed.**

"**You called your dog Donkey?" I asked.**

"**No that's just his description, he's a Donkey so we all call him Donkey of course Fiona wanted to give him a real name but I personally thought that was stupid" he said and I rolled my eyes.**

"**Let me guess Fiona is your wife?" I asked gritting my teeth together.**

"**How did you know that?" he hissed and I grabbed onto my purse.**

"**This is really cute Malcolm but you need to cut the crap' I sneered.**

"**Whose Malcolm?" he asked innocently.**

"**Oh for the love of god!" I groaned.**

"**If your upset about Fiona you have to understand that our marriage means nothing now! We rushed into things! We only knew each other for three days before we tied the knot" he said trying to reach for my hand and I snatched it away.**

"**You're an idiot! In fact you're a delusional idiot and if you ever try to contact me or my friend Ducky again I'll slap a restraining order on you!" I yelled and as my lungs expanded I heard a button pop.**

"**If you really hate me that much then why did you just flash me your wee big titties then?" he asked in a Scottish accent and I glanced down.**

**Sunny's miraculous black bra had caused my breasts to burst out of the front of my blouse.**

"**Oh god" I whispered, suddenly I was aware that every one in the restaurant was staring at me and I heard the sound of several camera phones going off.**

**Mortified I did the only thing I could do, I ran away.**

**Twenty minutes later I realized that perhaps running out of the restaurant was a little unwise, instead of being trapped in a confined area with my chest on display I was now out and about on the streets of LA with my chest on display.**

**After being asked "how much" by a Japanese businessman I ended up ducking into the garbage alley between the restaurant and a bookstore still clutching desperately onto the front of my shirt.**

**I sat on the filthy pollution stained cement where I proceeded to tip out the contents of my pure searching for anything to hold my shirt together.**

**I was so busy trying to clip my shirt shut with Gracie's lady bug shaped barrette that it took me a few moments to realize I could hear some one else breathing.**

**The clip snapped shut and I grabbed onto the nail scissors I always kept in my portable manicure kit.**

**Some one else breathing in a deserted alley way could be perfectly innocent, but then again the breathing could also belong to a would be rapist.**

**I tried to be opening minded about such things.**

**Slowly I looked up, a woman was standing a few feet away from me, staring at me.**

**It was obvious that she was trying to hide her identity, the huge sunglasses and fake Charlie's angels wig hinted at that.**

"**Can I help you?" I asked and she walked swiftly towards me, her shoes were actually made out of cork platforms and seaweed.**

"**Your Dawn Schafer correct?" she asked and I glanced over my shoulder praying for a butch police officer to walk past.**

"**Who's asking?" I asked.**

"**Look I know that your either Dawn Schafer or Sunny Winslow, one of the blond air heads who worked at that McDonalds" she said and I raised my eye brows.**

"**Are you stalking me?" I asked and she moved even closer, I could now tell that her jacket was made out of one hundred percent recyclable fabrics.**

**I must say I approved.**

"**Hardly, lets just say I keep my eyes on traitors to the cause" she smirked her dry lips flickering into a creepy almost smile.**

"**How could I be a traitor when I have no idea what cause you're talking about?" I pointed out and she smiled again.**

"**You're lucky you weren't in the restaurant when it burned down Dawn Schafer" she said and then she tossed a piece of paper at my feet before walking away.**

"**Oh and I suggest you stop hanging around ruined buildings with your little brother, accidents can happen" she called over her shoulder.**

**I picked up the piece of paper and ran after her but the streets were too crowded and I lost her within a matter of seconds.**

**The cynical part of me realized she could have easily whipped her wig off and I frowned with frustration still clutching onto the piece of paper.**

**Slowly I unfolded it, it was just an ordinary piece of printing paper but some one had printed the symbol on it that I was beginning to dread.**

**A sun with a tiny star in the center of it.**

**I stared at the piece of paper feeling frustrated, exhausted and most of all skanky in my outfit.**

**It was a feeling I really hated.**

**To make matters worse I heard some one call out my name and I glanced over my shoulder praying it wasn't the psycho Shrek impersonator or the fright fest in the bad wig.**

**I gasped and my hand instantly dove to the front of my chest to make sure my ladybug barrette was still in place.**

**The last person I expected to see was Ducky, but there he was standing in the street wearing a nineteen forties style pin striped jacket over a baggy Doctor Who T-shirt.**

**So dorky yet oddly enough in a cool way, so Ducky.**

**And so not the person I wanted to see.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight.

"Ducky" I heard myself breath and I secretly cringed, I sounded like all those romantic heroines I despised in all the movies Mary Anne loved.

Yes I was shaken, stressed out and a little bit frightened but I was never one of those girls.

"Dawn" he replied and for a second he sounded like Tom Hanks in all those Meg Ryan movies.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you at university?" I asked still clutching onto the front of my shirt.

Ducky just looked over his shoulder towards the wide glass windows that showed the inside of the Fiesta Grill.

"That guy I set you up with? Turns out his border line Schizoid, perfectly fine when he takes his medication of course," Ducky said.

"And let me guess he hasn't been taking his little blue pills?" I asked and Ducky flinched.

"Little light pink pills, his room mate found a whole bottle of them under his mattress" Ducky explained.

"Did you know he was crazy before you set me up?" I shouted accusingly and he looked stricken.

"Of course I didn't Dawn! Why else do you think I rushed all the way here when I found out? I had to borrow Samuel Grant's moped and I ended up nearly hitting a squirrel" Ducky cried and my heart softened for a second, like me Ducky had always appreciated small fluffy animals.

"Did you make sure it was alright?" I asked and he sighed.

"Mr Fluffy the squirrel will live to see another day, are you alright?" he asked me.

Sometimes when I was annoyed with Ducky I always thought that he only cared about other peoples problems because he thought that he had to care about everything, that even though he was sympathetic their was nothing sincere in his condolences.

But right then he was looking at me differently from the way he would look at Sunny or Maggie or even Gracie when they were upset.

He wasn't being the quiet listener; he was being the active rescuer.

"I'm fine," I said patting his arm reassuringly.

"But your shirt." he began trailing off.

"Malcolm didn't do that, Sunny's wonder bra did that," I said.

"The black one that she cried over when it didn't fit?" he asked his lips curling into a small smile.

"The very same, I cant believe she talked me into it" I replied rolling my eyes.

"He didn't hurt you did he?" Ducky then asked still looking serious.

"No, he was too busy thinking he was Shrek to do that" I laughed.

"Shrek? Are you serious?"

"He even had a little dog with him, he claimed it was a donkey" I added.

"You know it's very wrong to laugh at crazy people but sometimes you just can't help yourself," Ducky said with a mock stern expression on his face, which caused me to burst into a giggle fit.

This of course caused the lady bug barrette to snap open, fortunately my reflexes were much faster this time but my blouse still hung open for two seconds.

"Sorry about that, the shirts Maggie's" I said blushing bright red but Ducky was staring at my exposed cleavage an almost surprised expression on his face.

"Don't apologize," he finally said tearing his eyes away.

"But despite the balmy LA weather I really do think you should wear this" he said taking his jacket off and placing it around my shoulders.

Suddenly I knew exactly how Maggie felt when Justin saw her boobs after she climbed out of a swimming pool dripping wet.

"What about you Ducky? You tend to cry when it gets under seventy degrees," I pointed out.

"That was one time and frankly my dear I was hammered, of course I would prefer to go inside a nice warm restaurant that happens to serve Mexican food," he said his eyes trailing towards the restaurants doors.

"Is the psycho Shrek guy still in there?" I asked.

"No, if he was I would have suggested the Japanese place down the road" Ducky said logically.

"Raw fish?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"I have seen you eat fish at least three times Dawn, don't you deny it and go all vegan on me" he grinned and I rolled my eyes.

"Well I might eat fish, on very special occasions" I admitted.

"Would this count as one?" he asked.

"Better stick with the Mexican food" I smiled punching him lightly on the shoulder.

Ducky was the first close male friend I'd ever had, before I met him I'd always hung out in groups of girls.

Boys were at first gross and then they transformed into cute guys you kissed and went to dances with.

But they were never real friends.

When I was fourteen, I'd convinced myself that Ducky was gay.

If he was gay then he was really one of the girls and our friendship would have been ok. I wasn't naïve; I knew perfectly well that if I ever had a serious boyfriend he would object to me hanging around Ducky and sooner or later I would have to make a choice.

Convincing myself he was gay made things so much easier and for awhile things were great, Ducky became my confident the person I could talk to when my family or Sunny happened to be driving me crazy.

But then when I was fifteen I found out he was dating a girl, an actual girl.

Her name was Veronica and she had long black and purple hair, which clashed violently against the kilts she always wore.

I personally thought she was an Avril Lavinge wannabe but Ducky thought she was so cool until they broke up and she set fire to his dorm.

It didn't matter that she was a complete freak, she was still a girl and all the illusions I'd built up about Ducky were firmly shattered.

We were still friends but there was also the tense feeling that we both knew our friendship wouldn't last forever.

I thought about all those things as Ducky and I sat in the restaurant and Ducky started raving on about the indignity of riding a moped.

"Moped's belong to two kinds of people Dawn, beautiful girls on romantic vacations in Rome, or chess club geeks who are to afraid to get their drivers license" he said sipping from his coke.

"Hey I've always wanted a moped," I snorted.

"Well obviously you'd fall into the first category" he shot back seamlessly.

"Guess I'll have to book a ticket to Rome then" I grinned.

"Why not? You've already been to Hawaii, Amsterdam, New York and the Bahamas," he pointed out with a small smirk.

"It's not my fault that one of my childhood friends happened to be the step daughter of a millionaire, and that he always insisted on bringing us all on family vacations" I grinned referring to my friend Kristy Thomas.

"Now that's generosity"

"No it was free child care, he never wanted to take care of all his kids while on vacation so he used us instead. I really don't blame him, his daughter Karen totally had ADD," I explained as the waitress came with our meals.

I'd ordered the vegetarian nachos, Ducky had order a chiliburger but he tactfully put some lettuce over the beef patty.

"What's that piece of paper?" Ducky asked me and I blinked slowly.

"Piece of paper?" I asked.

"The one you just put down" he said and I stared at the weird note the lady in the bad wig had given me.

"Oh that? It's just a weird note some crazy woman threw at me" I said practically inhaling a salsa-covered corn chip.

Ducky grabbed onto the piece of paper but I wasn't upset, Ducky Sunny and I had no secrets, we'd even given each other copies of our journals before Ducky had left for college.

"You said a crazy woman threw this at you?" he asked his expression shocked.

"Yes, what of it?" I asked and he tossed the paper at me.

"Do you even know what this is?" he asked.

"No" I admitted reluctantly, I hated it when I didn't know things.

Ducky stared at the piece of paper and he slowly ripped it into pieces, I'd only ever seen that expression on his face once before.

It when he threw away all his brothers clothes, right before he left Palo City for good.

"Ducky, do you know what that is?" I asked and he just gave a small shaky laugh.

"It's just a bad memory" he replied, and he wouldn't say anything else.

I'd never been driven home on a moped before and I had to say it was quite an experience. When you drove around in a car you were in a sense shielded from the outside world but on the moped I could feel everything, the wind blowing against my face, the smell of salty sea air mixed with pollution and the sound of fireworks going off at Disneyland.

"You know when I was a kid I used to think it was so cool that I lived near Disneyland" I yelled and I heard Ducky give off a wild laugh.

"Me too!" he yelled back.

The moped however was ridiculously slow, in fact it was a piece of junk and it took almost forty minutes to get back to my house.

"This thing is such a worthless piece of junk" Ducky sighed as he drove up my driveway.

"Everyone should just ride bikes like they do in Amsterdam," I pointed out.

"If I road a bike to the Fiesta Grill I wouldn't have arrived in time" Ducky pointed out as I let go of his shoulders.

"But you would have cut down on pollution" I replied playfully as I slid down onto the ground.

"You know Dawn friendship is sometimes more important then the environment" he said with a long-suffering sigh and I thought about my own position and all I'd gone through.

"Sometimes it is," I echoed and he glanced over his shoulder.

"Sunny did your make up didn't she?" he asked.

"Yes, it looks terrible" I sighed.

"Not terrible, just….I never realized how old you were before" he said with a small nervous smile.

"How old I am?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"I've always seen you as that scared thirteen year old I met at two in the morning, but your not anymore are you?" he asked and then he shook his head.

"Sorry I'm exhausted and midterms are coming up which means my brain is slowly turning into mush" he apologized.

"You should go if you need to study," I said although I didn't want him to go at all, I wanted to talk until four in the morning, there were many things I wanted to do.

He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead, something he'd done many times before.

"Tell Sunny I said hi" he grinned and then the engine spluttered into life.

I watched him as he drove away until I could no longer hear the mopeds engine spluttering.

My hand brushed against my forehead and then I heard the sound of a window opening.

Sunny was staring at me from her bedroom window a confused expression on her face, dressed in her bright red silk camisole.

I was about to speak but then she slowly turned away shutting the window again, oddly enough she looked hurt.

"So, how did the big date go?" Sunny asked me during art class. We were supposed to be painting a still life out of different coloured inks but Sunny and I were never really all that good at art.

We mainly took it because Mrs. Sorrinso tended to let every one talk as much as they liked.

"It was terrible, my shirt burst open exposing my breasts to the whole world," I hissed back.

"And that's a bad thing?" Sunny asked and I rolled my eyes.

"It is in a crowded restaurant, besides the guy was crazy he thought he was Shrek," I added.

"He thought he was a super strong Ogre? That sounds hot" Sunny said as I carefully tried to color in the vase I had drawn, it looked like a wonky bong.

"Well it wasn't" I grumbled.

"That explains why Ducky took you home, since when does he have a moped anyway?" Sunny asked.

"Actually he was rescuing me, he knew the guy was a creep," I admitted.

"Well isn't it nice that Ducky is still a knight in vintage clothed armor" Sunny said sounding a little bitter.

"Um Sunny has some one injected you with supreme bitchieness?" I asked.

"You know I really don't care that you're hooking up with Ducky but you should at least tell me," Sunny snapped.

"Hooking up with Ducky? Have you lost it?" I hissed.

"I saw you two outside your house," she muttered.

"Yeah he gave me a ride home and we didn't do anything Sunny, not everything is about sex," I said with disgust.

"Fine, what did you two talk about then if it wasn't confessing your hidden feelings?" she asked.

"Nothing, well he did freak out when I showed him the symbol" I began.

"What symbol?" Sunny asked and I rolled my eyes drawing a sun with a star in the center of it on my piece of paper.

"That one, the one Nick was drawing all over the place at the hospital," I said pointing to it.

"Well of course he'd freak out over that," Sunny said wearily and I slowly raised my eyebrows.

"That symbol happens to be a tattoo, it belonged to one of the cromags who used to pick on Ducky" Sunny said.

"Which one?" I asked.

"I don't know the fat one, I think he's name was Harris" Sunny said with a vague wave of her hand.

Harris Bueller was the sort of young man that no one remembered really well after high school. He wasn't unpopular; rather he was the yes man to the popular which was even worse.

After all people remembered who the nerd were in our school, and it was better being remembered then nobody knowing you at all.

I couldn't even remember who he was and when Sunny and I found his yearbook all that was revealed was he took shop the same year as Seth.

"Oh yeah that guy Harris he was pretty much a nark man until he started dating that red headed chick from Palo City High and then he started showing up at all our bon fires man. He once brought this like awesome pen and when you clicked it all the ladies clothes came off" said Seth when we interrogated him after school.

"Yes but where does he live?" I asked impatiently.

"Oh well he used to live in that block of high-rises on Seventh Avenue" Seth said dreamingly turning his attention back to a tiny green Volkswagen he was working on.

When Seth said that Harris Bueller used to live on Seventh Avenue I assumed that the kid had moved off to college or had at least run away from home.

Instead forty minutes later Sunny and I found ourselves in a very awkward situation.

"Did they just carry a coffin down the stairs?" Sunny asked looking astonished, of course that could have been her turquoise eye make up.

"Maybe a little old lady with heaps of cats died" I said hopefully.

"The pallbearers were wearing varsity football jackets," Sunny said.

"Ok maybe she was an old lady who really loved football," I added and Sunny for the first time ever adjusted the hemline of her shirt so it actually covered her chest, she then briskly walked towards the apartments elevator, I followed her feeling completely horrified.

After asking for directions twice we managed to find the Bueller apartment, mourners dressed in black were spilling out into the hall way.

"Excuse me, we were friends of the deceased" Sunny said bossily pushing her way through, surprisingly no one questioned this.

Inside candles had lighted up the apartment and some one had placed a shrine on top of the television.

It showed a boy smiling for his school picture next to several newspaper articles, which had been carefully clipped out.

"Holy tofu! Sunny this is Harris Bueller and he's the guy who was killed in the McDonald's fire" I whispered reading one of the articles.

"Well then we're practically being respectful by showing up to the funeral, hey here's a picture of the tattoo" Sunny said picking up a photograph of Harris standing in his board shorts next to a surf board.

"Man he was fat wasn't he?" I remarked.

I stared at the tattoo on his arm, I'd always been into superstition and I believed firmly in my powers of intuition.

Something seemed vaguely wrong in that picture, sick and almost angry at the same time, which was odd because he was smiling.

"I know that neither of you happen to be my stepbrothers friends" a voice asked crisply, Sunny and I turned around.

A girl was staring at us, she looked vaguely familiar and I knew I'd seen her before.

Her hair had been bleached blond along with her eyebrows, and she was wearing her own version of a funeral outfit, which consisted of a black cheerleaders skirt, white halter neck and a thick plastic beaded black necklace.

"And how exactly do you know that?" Sunny asked folding her arms.

"Because your Sunny Winslow and my brother never slept with you, I don't know who you are but I doubt he slept with you either" she said to me.

"And who are you exactly?" Sunny asked raising her eyebrows.

"Venice Nova tell" Venice introduced herself.

"That is so not your real name," I snorted.

"It's my true name, I am a follower of the Hilton way" Venice said and I shot Sunny a questioning look.

"It's a new movement that follows the teachings of Paris Hilton, it's very popular with teenage girls and they tend to change their names to geographical locations and Hotel brands" Sunny whispered to me.

"Why would anyone want to follow Paris Hilton?" I asked.

"Because she's the golden messiah, she has taught us all how to become hot and fabulous without ever having to do any real work" Venice said.

"Oh well that makes perfect sense" Sunny grinned.

"If you're being sarcastic I'll have to ask you to leave, I refuse to allow negative energy to harm my general hotness" said Venice, quite seriously.

"She's not being sarcastic she's being Sunny, listen do you know anything about the tattoo that was on your step brothers arm?" I asked and Venice's eyes slowly widened.

"We can't talk about that here," she whispered.

"Well yes talking about tattoo's at a funeral isn't appropriate" Sunny said as if she'd experience that social taboo before.

Venice flicked her hair over one shoulder and then her eyes darted across the apartment towards the kitchenette her eyes falling on a girl serving up several platters of cold meat.

Suddenly things stopped being so silly, instead they felt serious.

Despite the fact the girl had long straight red hair and she was dressed in black I recognized her face.

She was the woman who had thrown the note at me in the alleyway.

"Meet me in the girls bathroom, tomorrow before class" Venice hissed.

"Wait a second you go to our school?" Sunny asked.

"Of course I do! I'm a freshmen," said Venice.

"Oh, freshmen" Sunny sighed wearily as if that explained why Venice had been beneath her notice.

The woman suddenly glanced up and her eyes fell on us, for a second I was sure she recognized me and I grabbed onto Sunny pulling her towards the door.

"We have to go, nice seeing you Venice" I said and Venice gave me a small resigned smile that indicated she understood why we were leaving.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine.**

**A/N Wow what can I say? When I first started this story it was going to be just a quick joke to join the many parodies here but then Dawn quickly took over my brain.**

**Now it's been nine chapters and it's turned into a real story, thanks to every one for your thoughts and encouragement.**

**And now the next chapter of Would You Like Fries With That.**

**All the former members of the We Love Kids Club were present in the girl's bathroom the next morning.**

**I had told Jill about Venice and Harris when she called me to give me my new working schedule, Jill and I had been sent to the McDonald's next to the local movie theatre. Sunny funnily enough ended up at McDonald's across the street from the Anglican all boys school, I wasn't sure if that was intentional or not.**

**Maggie had shown up in the bathroom in order to throw up, cut, or cry out her feelings.**

**It was hard to keep track of what depressing cycle she was currently on.**

"**I cant believe some one burned down McDonald's on purpose, I mean I know that sometimes people do get fat from eating our food but it's their responsibility to not shove rubbish in their mouths" Jill said putting on a layer of strawberry pink lip gloss.**

"**It's the organizations responsibility to promote healthy diets Jill!" I snapped back.**

"**Honestly who gives a crap?" Sunny cried.**

"**Actually my brother set fire to the McDonalds because his a complete and utter lunatic. He's also a cult member" a voice said cheerfully as the bathroom doors swung open.**

**Venice stood before us, glowing in hot pink carrying a shoulder bag that had a sheep dog in it.**

"**Why are you carrying a sheep dog?" asked Jill.**

"**Because Paris Hilton always carries her dog Tinkerbelle with her" Venice replied lowering her gigantic purple sunglasses.**

"**Yes but Tinkerbelle is the size of my fist, that thing is the size of a bus" Jill added.**

"**Well he seemed a lot smaller when he was a puppy and daddy wont let me give him up" sniffed Venice.**

"**Of course you shouldn't, it's disgraceful how many animals get abandoned in LA" a voice popped up from the nearest cubicle.**

"**Whose that?" Venice asked raising her perfectly plucked eyebrows.**

"**Maggie Blume" Sunny said looking very bored.**

"**Maggie Blume?" Venice asked, by this point Maggie had begun to sing the song she'd written about throw away pets years ago.**

**Vanish had hated it but the song ended up being used as a radio Jingle by the local vetinary hospital.**

"**Yes that's Maggie Blume, currently having an emotional crisis in the toilet" I sighed wearily.**

"**Maggie Blume is so awesome, she's like the Goth Paris" Venice said.**

"**She is?" Sunny asked.**

"**I once saw her in teen beat magazine standing next to Kelly Osborne" Venice said somberly.**

"**Kelly Osborne is a stupid try hard British skank," Maggie said coming out of the bathroom, her eyes fell on Venice.**

"**Oh god you Hollywood fakes are multiplying," she said with a roll of her eyes before moving to the sink.**

"**Look Venice you said you'd tell us about your brother" I said.**

"**Oh yeah, Harris was an eco terrorist" Venice said.**

"**You mean like Peta?" I asked.**

"**Hmm maybe? All I know is what I overheard mom talking to the police about it. Apparently he burned the McDonald's down by sticking petrol bombs in the garbage bins" Venice said.**

"**I was supposed to be working there that night," Sunny said her tanned face growing pale.**

"**Why didn't you end up working there anyway?" I asked.**

"**Because I left my uniform in the back of Seth's car, duh" Sunny replied.**

"**Sunny it's against company policy to engage in sexual intercourse while wearing your McDonald's uniform, what if some one saw you" Jill pointed out.**

"**It wasn't sexual intercourse! It was making out and at no point did his penis enter my hooha" Sunny said.**

"**Well I hope not because that would be gross, you'd get food poisoning that way" Jill grimaced.**

"**Hooha is slang for her vagina Jill" Maggie sighed wearily.**

"**Vagina?" Jill asked still looking confused.**

"**You know the thing downstairs Jill, we learned about it in health class" I said patiently.**

"**Oh I never went to those classes, mother said they were evil and refused to sign my permission form" Jill said and I realized perhaps it was best to leave some things unsaid.**

**I refused to guide Jill into the world of sexual education.**

"**Ok so your brother was an eco terrorist? For which group? Green peace? The right wing nationals for the release of agricultural slaves?" I asked, being an environmentalist I liked to keep myself informed on all eco terrorist groups incase I found myself accidentally joining one.**

**I didn't want a repeat of the incident during my freshmen year with the guy from Peta.**

"**Do you really think I care about what they're called? All I know is they used to have weird meetings in his bedroom and they all had that tattoo with the sun and a star on them" Venice said tiredly.**

"**But that isn't helpful at all" I grumbled.**

"**Well I never said I could give you any help, honestly don't you have the Internet? Paris Hilton does on her blackberry" said Venice smugly.**

"**Why would she have the internet on a piece of fruit?" asked Jill.**

"**How exactly are we supposed to find this on the internet, type in tattoo's with the words " sun that happens to have a little star in it?" I asked ignoring Jill.**

"**What ever! Now I have to go and do my mid morning wardrobe change before first period" Venice snarled flouncing off in a cloud of Paris Hilton perfume.**

"**Ok so now we have to find an available Internet server and look up a tattoo for some kind of cult," Sunny said.**

"**Have fun doing that, I'm going to be busy cutting my arms and using the blood to paint smiley faces all over my walls" Maggie replied.**

**Generally speaking Sunny and I avoided the internet, I avoided it after the third time I went online and some one thought it would be funny to send me the "true facts about chuck Norris" forward.**

**Sunny avoided it because computers tended to smoke and explode whenever she got near them.**

**Jeff however was an expert when it came to all things involving computers, which was why I decided to seek him out during biology class. Technically speaking I was supposed to be learning about photosynthesis but our teacher Mr Roberts had a nervous breakdown after Justin Vahama threw a bottle filled with coke at the fan spraying the entire room with sugary soda.**

**Mr Roberts had run out crying two lessons ago and because every one in my class hated biology nobody ever bothered to tell the principal we were currently without a teacher.**

**Jeff only ever seemed to go to the classes that mattered like math and English; he was very good at skipping things like drama and shop only to redo them during his summer vacation.**

**During those times it was best to look for him in the computer lab.**

**There were very few students at Vista High who would fit into the lower income or poverty line bracket, most students who did lived in a different area code and went to the public school Palo City High.**

**This meant that Vista was funded mostly by generous donations and this included the computer lab, every single time a single piece of software went out of date some ones rich father would replace it.**

**When this happened the old equipment was thrown out and it was a well-known fact that the geeks in Vista went "Dumpster Diving".**

**Jeff's entire complex computer system was made up entirely of recycled parts and they worked perfectly well as long as you ignored the lingering smell of cafeteria coleslaw.**

"**Shouldn't you be in Biology?" Jeff asked me as I strode into the computer lab with Sunny and Jill, Jill had a free period and I hadn't bothered to ask Sunny where she was supposed to be.**

"**Shouldn't you be in drama?" I shot back.**

"**Touché" he admitted reluctantly.**

**The computer lab was as per usual filled with skinny pale teenage boys chatting online and ambitious teenage girls who worked for the school paper.**

**The girls had given our group a dismissive look but the guys were staring at Sunny as if she was the Holy Grail.**

"**I heard she's that girl who flashed her boobs on that drunk teenagers with issues website" one of them whispered and Sunny glared at him.**

"**It was a newsletter actually and it only happened once and I'd drunk six wine coolers," she said to them coolly and they immediately called her over begging for her autograph.**

"**What are you doing here? I thought you hated computers," Jeff said to me suspiciously.**

"**I need you to find something for me online" I said and he narrowed his eyes.**

"**And what makes you think I can do that?" he asked.**

"**You managed to find out about Mary Anne's hidden karaoke career that way so I think you can handle this," I said referring to an incident six months ago when we'd discovered my stepsister had been secretly entering statewide karaoke contests.**

"**Please be a sweetie and do it for your big sis Jeffie!" smiled Jill leaning forward, completely oblivious to the fact that Jeff could easy see down her pink and Lavender striped shirt.**

**Jeff gulped and shot me a guilty look.**

"**What do you want me to find?" he asked and I handed him a piece of paper I'd written during English detailing everything I knew.**

"**I want you to find out what this means Jeff, I want to know everything about this tattoo and this group" I said and he glanced at the paper warily.**

"**Give me twenty four hours," he finally said after reading the entire list.**

**The next afternoon I found myself working in the new McDonald's with Jill, after months of working in the old one I'd assumed that all McDonalds were the same, I was wrong. This McDonald's was actually located in what had once been the really old part of the movie theatre. A chandelier hung from the ceiling and there were still gold painted balconies however some one had gotten rid of the stairs so reaching them would be impossible.**

"**It's a Mccafe" Jill said with a small squeal patting her hair.**

"**A Mc what?" I asked and Jill patting my hand patiently.**

"**A Mccafé, it's like a regular McDonalds accept it has a proper coffee bar and they do it up much fancier" Jill explained and she sighed a smile on her face.**

"**We're really moving up in the world" she added with a happy grin.**

**Moving up in the world seemed to involve dealing with a fast food restaurant that was under the delusion it was a five-start restaurant.**

**The place actually had leather stools for people to sit on and I had to clean them with furniture polish after closing.**

**This was after I'd been yelled at for not being perky enough and not knowing all the contents of the McCafé's smoothies.**

"**It used to be so much easier, we made crappy food and took fat peoples money," I groaned to Jill as I scrubbed at a Milkshake stain on the leather.**

"**Calling them fat is politically incorrect Dawnie" Jill said an exhausted expression on her face.**

"**Fine morbidly obese people, anyway it feels so weird working in a McDonalds that seems to think it's something else! Its like they're trying to be carob when all they are is disgusting sugar filled chocolate" I said tossing my soft cloth onto the floor.**

"**Well we're stuck here until they finish building the new McDonalds" Jill said.**

"**Correction you're stuck here, as soon as I earn enough to pay off my debts I'm quitting" I said and Jill of course looked upset.**

"**But if you leave it'll be like the way it was before" she cried.**

"**Jill I'm not going to dump you!" I said and she narrowed her eyes.**

"**You did before" she pointed out.**

"**Jill" I began and she cut me off with a wave of her hand.**

"**Five years! We were friends for five years and then you dropped me because of a t-shirt I was wearing" she said but oddly enough she didn't sound angry, rather resigned and a little sad.**

"**I'm sorry," I admitted.**

"**I know you are and it wasn't just you, I admit I was a bit angry by the way Sunny was acting" Jill said earnestly.**

"**And now?" I asked.**

"**Now I'm used to it" she smiled and I began scrubbing at the chair again, I think by that point in our lives every one was used to Sunny.**

**Five minutes later when I was about to turn the lights off Jeff entered the store, normally I wouldn't have been weirded out by this because he was my brother and I saw him every where.**

**But Jeff hardly ever entered fast food restaurants, a lifetime of healthy eating had made him allergic to processed fats.**

"**Jeff what are you doing here? Do dad and Carol know that you're out after ten?" I asked referring to his curfew.**

"**Do you think I'm stupid? I snuck out of a window and we have to leave right now," he said tugging on my hand.**

"**Leave? I still have another twenty minutes until my shift is over" I pointed out but he tugged harder, it was then I realized something was very wrong.**

**Jeff hadn't held my hand since he was six.**

"**Jeffie honey what are you doing here? We're not serving right now," Jill said standing behind me.**

"**Get your coats both of you, right now" he said, Jill shot me a puzzled look.**

"**Why?" she asked and Jeff hopped impatiently from foot to foot.**

"**Remember that thing you asked me to find out about? And remember that fire?" he asked and my eyes widened when I deciphered his expression, Jeff was terrified.**

"**Jill get your coat," I said running back inside, however instead of getting my coat I pulled the fire alarm.**

"**You're Dawn right? The girl from the last restaurant that burned down?" a fat guy in his mid twenties asked. I assumed he was in charge of the French fries so I was rather surprised when I found out he was the district manager.**

"**I'm sorry sir, Dawn didn't realize that she needed to make sure there was a fire before pulling the alarm. We've all been a bit on edge" simpered Jill next to me. We were sitting on the curb outside the restaurant waiting for Carol to pick us up; Jeff had fallen asleep long after the fire engines had shown up.**

"**Actually we owe Dawn a big thank you, the fire department uncovered a small home made explosive in the trash bin, hidden in a Big Mac wrapper" the manager said and some how this didn't surprise me at all.**

"**Why exactly did you pull the alarm Dawn?" he asked and I couldn't exactly say that my thirteen-year-old brother had freaked me out so badly I'd pulled it without thinking.**

"**Shouldn't I be talking to the police about this?" I shot back and Jill made an eeping sound.**

"**That's actually a pretty good idea, I'm Officer Vasquez will it be all right if we ask the two of you a couple of questions?" he asked.**

"**Only if it's a couple, my step mothers coming to pick us up soon" I replied and Jill made another terrified squeaking sound.**

"**So why did you pull the fire alarm?" he asked and I glanced at Jill, Jill never got in trouble with authority figures because of her sweet and innocent persona.**

**If Jill answered a cops question she'd answer it in her breathless tinkly sort of voice that suggested she spent half her time off with fairies and unicorns.**

"**Well I smelt smoke and I learned at training that you always have to pull the alarm if you smell smoke!" I said batting my eyes innocently and Jill shot me a surprised look.**

"**Smoke? And what of this?" he asked holding out a Big Mac Wrapper, assumingly the one used to wrap up the bomb.**

**Scrawled across it was the symbol.**

"**Oh it's so pretty! Isn't it Jill? I'd love to have it on a T-shirt" I smiled and the cop shook her head.**

"**Have you ever seen it then?" he asked quickly.**

"**Seen what?" I asked blinking my eyes rapidly and he sighed with frustration.**

"**We'll talk later" he said to the district manager.**

"**Why did you lie to the cop?" Jill asked as we drove home and Carol raised her eyebrow.**

"**Dawn I'm not going to tell your father about Jeff sneaking out or the bomb scare because I'm a cool step mom but I don't approve of you lying to the police" Carol said from behind the wheel.**

" **I didn't lie, I honestly have no idea how a bomb got in the rubbish bin," I said and Carol made a tutting sound under her breath.**

"**It most likely has to do with terrorists, everything's to do with terrorists these days" she said her voice echoing over the song "Fox on the run" that was playing on the radio.**

"**Jeff" I asked staring at him as he sat on his bed reading a piece of paper a distracted expression on his face.**

"**You want to know how I knew about the bomb" he began and I nodded.**

"**That symbol belongs to some kind of crazy cult called the summoning French fry," he said and I raised my eyebrows.**

"**Excuse me?" I asked and he rolled his eyes.**

"**They're featured on the urban legend codex, they're a group that takes out McDonald's restaurants Dawn," he said wearily and he jumped off his bed heading to his computer. Jeff never turned his computer off, when he had to sleep it went to screen saver mode.**

**I watched as he pulled up several web browsers, they were all newspaper articles some in foreign languages.**

"**No one knows much about them but rumor has it they come to a town and take out all the fast food restaurants in the area" Jeff said gesturing to an article in English.**

"**Why hasn't the FBI gotten involved in this?" I asked.**

"**They've never hit America before, all these articles are from Brazil Asia and Spain" Jeff explained.**

"**Yes but how did you know there would be a bomb?" I asked fearfully.**

"**I got two of my Quake buddies from Japan to look into it and they said that there was a pattern in the articles dates. The group comes to a town and every five days they take out a restaurant in a freak accident until all the McDonald's in the area have been taken out" Jeff said.**

"**So you didn't really know, you just wanted to make sure I was safe" I said feeling touched and Jeff pulled a face.**

"**Dad would be pissed if you died, and I'd have to baby-sit Gracie," he said and I hugged him.**

"**Quit your job Dawn, there are still four more restaurants left" he said hugging me back.**

**It turned out to be one of those nights where I couldn't sleep I found myself staring at the glow in the dark stars I'd stuck onto my ceiling when I was seven, usually I found them soothing but that night nothing happened.**

**At around midnight I reached for my phone to call Sunny, Sunny generally speaking never went to bed before the wee hours of the morning and she didn't mind chatting to me on her cell.**

**Sunny didn't answer and I sighed, she was with a guy.**

**I knew she was.**

**A few moments later my own cell vibrated and I stared at the number wondering why Ducky was calling me in the middle of the night.**

"**If you're looking for Sunny I don't know where she is ok?" I said immediately upon answering.**

"**I'm not looking for Sunny" I heard him reply sounding faintly affronted.**

"**Then why are you calling so late?" I asked.**

"**It's not late, for college guys four am is late" he chuckled.**

"**Yes well I'm still in high school and I have to wake up in seven hours" I replied wryly.**

"**You weren't asleep to begin with Jeff said he could see the light under your door" Ducky said.**

"**And why isn't Jeff asleep?" I snapped hopping off the bed.**

"**He's a thirteen year old guy with an Internet addiction, do you really expect him to sleep?" Ducky asked and I shrugged my shoulders, I guess he was telling the truth.**

"**Are you and Jeff talking while playing some sort of video game right now?" I asked peering out into the hallway where I could see Jeff's room.**

"**No I'm writing a paper on Post Modernism in the novel Generation X, Jeff saw me on Aim and pinged me. He seems pretty worried about you" Ducky said meaningfully.**

"**Yeah well Jeff's a worry wart," I said returning to my own room; from my window I could see a light in the upstairs floor of the Winslow house.**

**I sighed with relief at least Sunny was home.**

"**Is it true that some one really put a bomb in a Mcdonald's bin?" I heard Ducky ask.**

"**Well yes, but nobody was hurt" I reassured him.**

"**Dawn what's going on?" he sighed and I frowned as I realized the light coming from Sunny's house was a flashlight.**

"**Nothing" I answered.**

"**Don't give me that, you've been working non stop and you're constantly acting defensive," he said.**

"**I am not acting defensive!" I shot back distracted by the lights from Sunny's house.**

"**Dawn I can tell when something's bothering you" I heard him sounding graveling injured and I wanted to scream at him, I was tired of him constantly assuming he had to help me with my problems.**

**I was tired of him constantly being worried it was exhausting.**

"**You know what Ducky you cant tell when there is something wrong with me because guess what! YOU ALWAYS ASSUME THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME" I yelled into the phone not caring if I woke up Gracie next door.**

**The other end of the line was silent but I could still hear his breathing.**

"**I don't always think that" I finally heard him say in a tiny little whisper.**

"**Then why do you keep doing this?" I finally asked and part of my subconscious was screaming at me to stop.**

**You were never supposed to ask the male friend questions like this, you were supposed to joke about movies or bitch about people you hated.**

**This was crossing the line, when it came to what your male friends really thought about it was better not to know.**

"**I once rescued Sunny when she tried to run away from home" he said his voice sounding oddly sad.**

"**I remember" I replied sitting back down on my bed.**

" **But you've never asked me to rescue you, some times that worries me a lot" Ducky admitted.**

"**I'm a big girl, I can tie my own sandals," I said quoting Hercules; we'd watched it with Gracie many times before.**

"**That doesn't make the worry go away, there are some things you cant do alone Dawn" he said almost as if he was scolding me and I said nothing, staring at the glowing stars on my ceiling.**

"**And that's what worries me because I don't think you've realized that yet" he finished but some how it seemed like there was something he wasn't telling me.**

"**But it's not your job to protect me Ducky, you're not my father or my brother or my.." I began and I caught myself just in time.**

"**Or your what?" he asked.**

"**You're just my friend, I know you're worried but it's not like I'm a prostitute or addicted to cocaine. You have to trust me to make my own decisions" I replied and he sighed.**

"**Yeah, friend" he said in a tone of voice that made me wonder if he'd heard anything else I'd said.**

" **I should let you get back to your paper, night Ducky" I finished firmly, too tired to say anything else.**

"**Yeah night" he replied sounding disappointed and I hung up.**

**Above me the glow in the dark stars began to brighten a little as I switched off my desktop lamp, they never seemed to fade even after so many years.**

**Part of me was expecting something deeper from Ducky, something epic, something that reminded me of the movies Mary Anne loved.**

**But I knew I was stupid to expect that much, especially by the time I woke up in the harsh light of day the galaxy on my ceiling no longer glowing.**

"**Besides he doesn't like me that way," I said to myself as I wrote in my journal during breakfast.**

"**Who doesn't like you?" Carol asked and I glared at her reaching for the pile of grapes on my plate.**

"**No one" I said hastily popping a grape into my mouth. I shoved my journal into my knapsack and headed for Sunny's.**

**Suddenly I had an over whelming urge to see Sunny, an urge I hadn't felt since I was thirteen and Dad announced that he and Carol were getting married.**

**I'd often stopped by Sunny's before school, when we were kids it was because I felt like part of her family but after Mrs. Winslow died it was to make sure Sunny kept getting out of bed every morning.**

**The back door was unlocked; this wasn't unusual Mr Winslow was so absent-minded he constantly forgot to lock the doors.**

**Everything worth stealing like the television and the computer was kept in Sunny's room that she always kept locked when she wasn't home. I passed the kitchen with the sink filled with dirty dishes, and the pile of spilt laundry next to the stairs. Upstairs I saw the empty master bedroom; Mr Winslow must have fallen asleep at work again.**

**The bed however hadn't been made, it looked like it had been left like that for days and there was a fine layer of dust on the dressing table. The bathroom door was shut and I walked past it heading for Sunny's room.**

**The door was wide open.**

**Sunny always kept her door shut, after all she could never tell when her dad was going to be home and sometimes she had guests like the varsity lacrosse team who Mr Winslow wouldn't approve on.**

**Sunny's jewelry box lay broken on the floor, it had once belonged to Mrs. Winslow.**

**Sunny no matter how drunk would never damage it and something shimmered in the sunlight.**

**Amongst the beaded necklaces, mismatched earrings and her mothers gold bracelet there were pieces of broken glass.**

**The window was hanging open and it was broken.**

**Everything suddenly felt freezing and boiling hot at the exact same time and I clawed at the front of my purple peasant blouse unable to breathe.**

**I imagined Sunny sleeping in her bed, underneath the tie dyed bedspread her mother had made her but dressed in her favorite black lace teddy.**

**Everything would be quiet and she wouldn't stir from the noises outside, after all she was used to her father returning at odd hours.**

**And then the window would break.**

**I could see it all so clearly.**

**There were footsteps, high heels against polished wood and I turned grabbing onto a sliver of glass as a weapon.**

**It was the woman from the funeral and the alleyway, this time wearing a dark wig and sunglasses.**

"**Hello Dawn" she smiled.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter ten:

"What did you do?" I asked, I wasn't stupid after all and I knew it wasn't a coincidence that this woman had shown up right after Sunny's disappearance. The woman removed her sunglasses, when I was thirteen I'd believed that blue eyes could often be associated with people who had cold personalities.

Her eyes looked like shattered glass against blue seawater.

"Me? I did nothing, as for one of my associates on the other hand.. Well your friend should be wary about who she decides to invite into her bedroom" she said and then she pulled a cigarette out of her pocket lighting it up.

"What are you doing?" I shrieked with horror.

"I am smoking, sorry if it bothers you but this isn't exactly your house" she smirked.

"But you're an environmental terrorist! Surely you would object to smoking," I pointed out and she laughed, it was annoying and it rasped.

"An environmental terrorist? My dear girl not all terrorist groups concern themselves with the state of the Ozone layer" she said before taking another drag of her cigarette.

"But I thought that the summoning." I began and she cut me off.

"What you think in the end really doesn't matter, now are we going to spend all day chatting? After all I cant exactly guarantee your best friends safety" she added and I folded my arms shooting her my best babysitter glare.

"Fine then talk" I said.

"We need the security codes for the all the McDonalds restaurants in the city area, they can only be accessed by a manager or an assistant manager," she said and I coughed waving smoke away from my face.

"Then why not kidnap one of Jill's dogs?" I asked and the woman smiled.

"Jill will call the police, you on the other hand Dawn Schafer.. Well I know all about you," she said and I glared at her trying to hide my fear.

"I have no idea what you mean," I said coldly.

"Rescuing cute little puppies from dognappers, foiling convenience store robbers you've been a very busy girl haven't you?" she asked stubbing the cigarette onto Sunny's floor.

"I was just a kid back then," I finally said.

"You're still a child, the security codes if you want her back Dawn, call the police and she'll be sent on a one way trip to Cambodia where we may or may not sell her to the white slave trade" she smiled and I realized I actually was frightened. I'd always imagined that environmentalists would be friendly people in tie dyed t-shirts and ripped up jeans who listened to Tori Amos and smoked pot.

I never thought they'd be so.. Ruthless.

"When and where?" I asked.

"The destroyed McDonalds, tomorrow at midnight" she said and then she calmly brushed some cigarette ash off her shirt.

I didn't know what to do afterwards. I found myself sitting hunched over on the edge of Sunny's bed playing with the broken music box, I supposed I was in a state of shock. I wished I were back in Stoneybrook when I was thirteen, my friends back then always knew how to come up with plans to save the day. A thing like eco terrorists kidnapping one of them wouldn't have stopped them. But I was alone, without a plan and without any ideas. And that was when I felt the tiniest prick, almost like a needle hit my skin and I promptly fainted.

"So is that how the story ended then?" some one asked and I realized I was sitting in a counselors office much to my surprise.

"This isn't right" I realized.

"That's not important, now tell me more about the end of the story," the voice said, some one was sitting in a high-backed chair their face obscured by shadows.

"Well I don't know how the rest of the story goes," I snapped.

"How do you think it should end?"

"I'm not a writer I hope you realize, I've never thought about how things are supposed to end," I pointed out.

"Ah yes that's Dawn all over isn't it? You think about the consequences of your actions constantly but you never really hope for the sort of happy ending everyone else seems to get" my companion continued.

"Buddha claims that in life there can be no eternal happy ending because life is about change, things change, things need to change or we'd have no concept of what happiness really is" I said firmly.

"Is that a fact?"

"Yes, think about it you wouldn't know what joy is if you had never felt despair" I said referring to the books I'd bought in the Chinese gardens.

"You know all about despair Dawn Schafer, but what do you know of joy?"

"Nothing" I admitted.

"Nothing?"

"But I do know about happiness, it isn't something you can grab onto and hold but it is their in fleeting moments" I realized.

"Fleeting, isn't that too little?"

"It's enough"

"Tell me about your friend Sunny, how did you feel when you realized she'd gone"

"I felt angry" I replied.

"Why?"

"Because once upon a time she wasn't stupid," I replied.

"And now?"

"Lets just say I wouldn't have invited a strange boy up into my room I replied wiping my hair away from my forehead.

"Or any boy for that matter"

"I don't have to you know, there isn't any rule which says I have to be like Sunny" I replied.

"Are you sure that's the real reason? A fear of being like your best friend? Are you sure that in reality your afraid that if you really let yourself be vulnerable to someone they'll reject you?" my companion continued and I realized who it was.

"Hello Mary Anne" I said gravely and the shadows cleared revealing my stepsister, she looked no older then thirteen.

"Hello Dawn"

"How have you been?" I asked.

"Lovely, I sewed a kitten cushion" she smiled.

"I'm dreaming aren't I?"

"Yes, I think it might be due to the tranquilizers in your blood stream" Mary Anne guesses her eyes tearing up at the prospect.

"Drugs? Oh god, how do I wake up?" I asked.

"You're in love aren't you?" she asked instead and I frowned.

"I don't see what that's got to do with my drug induced coma" I replied.

"It has to do with everything, it led you here after all" she said.

"I suppose so," I admitted.

"Are you going to tell him?" she asked.

"Definitely not!"

"You've never been the shy type before"

"I never really loved a guy before and I don't want to ruin everything we have," I pointed out.

"I thought you said Buddha believes in change?" she asked curiously raising her eyebrows.

"Oh whatever!" I snapped and I frowned.

"You're turning into a cat" I realized.

"Yes that's normal"

"An actual cat" I continued and she began to purr.

My eyes snapped open and I gasped with surprise, it was all a dream. I couldn't remember what had been said in the dream exactly, but it felt important.

It turned out the purring was the sound of an engine running.

"Easy now you've been out of it for nearly an hour" I heard Jill's voice float into my head, which still felt very big and puffy.

"My face feels to fat, is it fat?" I asked.

"It's normal, you're still a bit high I think Nick over did it" Jill's voice said kindly and I sat bolt upright everything shaking.

"Nick? Psycho Nick?" I cried.

"You know I really do resent that nickname, just because I used to hide knives in teddy bears it doesn't make me psychotic" he said, it was the most I'd ever heard him say in almost five months.

"I think I'm going to die," I groaned.

"Just relax, you'll stop feeling funny soon" Jill said stroking my shoulder.

"Why did you drug me?" I asked.

"We couldn't have you do something stupid like getting the security codes and we couldn't have you run off to the police," Jill said with a gentle smile.

"What?" I choked.

"Nick called me last night after the whole bomb thing, turns out McDonald's has their own way of handling these situations" Jill said and the car screeched to a stop. I watched in vague horror as Nick turned off the exhibition and pulled a handgun out of the glove box.

"That's a gun"

"Yes" Nick said turning on the safety switch.

"Am I hallucinating or does it have the McDonalds logo on the handle?" I asked and Nick unlocked the doors.

"No he replied flatly.

The car had pulled outside an office building some where in the city, the sort that had been built in the early eighties and consisted entirely of reflective glass windows. I felt my legs tremble underneath me and Jill grabbed onto my elbow.

"Easy now, you've had a rough day" Jill said kindly.

"Jill explain, now" I growled.

"Nick?" Jill asked and he merely shrugged his shoulders heading for the front doors. We marched into the foyer, which was made out of solid marble and had a fountain in the shape of a Big Mac in the center.

A receptionist dressed in an apple green version of the McDonald's uniform glanced at us.

"Morning Nick, those girls are a bit young aren't they?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"They work for us," Nick said and I glanced at Jill again.

"I thought he was a fry cook," I hissed.

"Not exactly" she admitted.

"Clearance" said the receptionist and Nick handed over an identification card.

"Nick if I apologize for calling you psycho will you please explain what's happening?" I asked gently and he turned to me a bemused expression on his face. I was used to seeing his craggy face in a perpetual expression of insanity so it was odd staring at his almost smile.

"Maybe" he said as the receptionist handed the ID back and as I watched he walked to the elevators.

"Jill?" I pleaded.

"Honestly didn't you read those orientation books at all?" she asked.

"Why would I? No one ever reads the orientation book when they get a new job" I pointed out.

"If you read the book then you'd know that a cooperation as big as McDonalds needs more then cashiers and cooks to run successfully, they have PR firms, advertising and then they have the special Ops" Jill explained.

"You mean like FBI agents?" I whispered as the elevator doors opened.

"Sort of but they work exclusively for McDonalds, they make sure that stuff that affects the company is dealt with efficiently, like gangs robbing restaurants and stuff like that" Jill whispered and we followed Nick into the elevator.

"And him?" I hissed.

"I know I had no idea he was one until he rang me last night but it makes sense doesn't it? I mean how many fry cooks look like that?" she asked gesturing to Nick and she was right.

He looked like Neo from the Matrix.

"Then why was he at our restaurant acting like the local village lunatic?" I whispered.

"We had a tip off that the summoning French fry was planning an attack so I went under cover some time ago" Nick said, it was obvious he'd heard everything.

"Did you figure out it was Henry?" I asked.

"Actually at first I thought it was you," he said shooting me a cool look.

"Me?" I choked.

"Well you were a new employee with no experience, your records also showed a strong interest in environmentalist groups and you're wearing an anti globalization shirt" he pointed out examining my chest.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, you know not all environmentalists are bomb holding lunatics! That's like saying all Muslims are terrorists" I snorted.

"You also showed up in several local papers after an incident involving PETA"

"That wasn't my fault! I really liked that guy and when he asked me to hold his bag I thought I was doing him a favour!"

"There was a baby lion liberated from the Santiago zoo inside," said Nick dryly.

"I didn't actually steal it! Besides that happened over a year ago and you need to get over it," I snorted.

"Relax Dawn, he knows you weren't involved" Jill said and then a small smile crossed her face.

"A baby lion, how cute!" she added with a happy grin.

"It wasn't cute when the police swooped in" I said grimly and I turned to Nick.

"So Nick was the whole thing an act or are you really mentally unstable?" I asked honestly.

"What do you think?" he asked baring his teeth.

"Nick stop scaring her! She wont help if she's terrified" Jill scolded him and oddly enough he stopped.

"Fine" he snarled.

"Listen if you're a special op agent that means you're going to help Sunny right?" I asked still rather frightened and Nick scowled as the doors slammed open.

"My office, now" he snapped.

Nick's office was smaller then a broom cupboard and the back wall were covered with a half melted sign that had been liberated from our former restaurant.

The walls were covered in chalk drawings, a sun with a star in it.

Nick sat behind his desk and pushed back the sleeve of his shirt revealing his bandaged arm.

For a few moments we said nothing and eventually my head still swimming I sat down on the grimy carpet followed by Jill.

"So what now?" I asked.

"The summoning French fry have asked you to hand over the security codes, don't lie we saw the whole thing" Nick said.

"How?" I asked.

"Sunny's uniform was on the bedroom floor, and all name tags are equipped with a video camera with a miniature microphone" Nick said.

"Wow, big brother is watching you," I muttered.

"It helps prevent petty thievery from the tills" Jill said with a nod towards Nick.

"We discovered that Sunny had been kidnapped when our system heard a scream at around midnight, we would have contacted the police but we recognized the symbol of the summoning French fry and we take our employee's safety seriously" he said and I rolled my eyes.

"Then why aren't you doing anything to help her?" I asked.

"But we are" Nick said flatly.

"Really?" I asked and Nick reached amongst the debris on the desk retrieving a piece of printed off paper.

"The security codes, give them to the summoning French fry at midnight," he said.

"You're kidding right?" I asked.

"I think it's best not to question him Dawn," whispered Jill taking my hand gently.

The security codes remained tucked up in my bag like a filthy dark little secret, I was so sure that every one would know what I was about to do and I ended up screaming hysterically whenever anyone brushed against me.

"Calm down Dawnie!" hissed Jill.

"I cant do this, dog nappers and ghosts are easy but this involves terrorists" I hissed.

"We need to help Sunny" Jill pointed out.

"They're wiring us for sound Jill! Can't you take this seriously?" I cried.

"I'm sure they know what they're doing" Jill pointed out.

"You're not the one with a microphone in your bra" I muttered darkly.

"The microphone is necessary, we need to gain evidence when you meet them tomorrow morning" Nick said adjusting the wiring.

"Stop touching my shirt Nick" I said coldly.

"I have to do a system check" he replied.

"I know, but stop touching my shirt" I said and their was a snapping noise as I slapped his wrist.

"That hurt"

"It was supposed to" I replied.

"I could shoot you dead for that" he growled.

"Good luck finding some one else to go under cover, Jill's hopeless and she'd start crying from fear," I pointed out.

"It's true" Jill agreed.

"You're done, those terrorists are most likely watching you so you're to go and do whatever normal shit you stupid girls do until tonight" he growled not even bothering to look at me, their was something odd about his frown.

It wasn't out of anger I realized…

"How old are you Nick?" I finally asked and he raised his eyebrows.

"Does it matter?" he asked.

"Well I want to know if you're some sort of sleazy old pervert lusting after my best friend or some one who cares for her, even if they are a little crazy" I replied and he finally made eye contact.

"I'm neither" he replied.

"I'm going to skip Gym," I said to Maggie once Jill and I were back at school, pretending everything was "normal".

"That's nice, why?"

"Because I have a microphone in my bra" I replied and Maggie seemed to consider this for a moment.

"That sounds like a good excuse, can you come with me to the library then? I've got to talk to you and Sunny" Maggie said, today she was on the up cycle of her manic depression and was dressed in a crisp forest green shirt with a matching mini skirt and a pair of black stiletto's.

"Sunny's not here" I choked.

"Oh?"

"She's been kidnapped by environmentalists," I whispered.

"Oh" Maggie said her eyes widening for a moment.

"Is that your reaction? Oh?" I asked.

"Well it's hardly surprising, some one was bound to kidnap her sooner or later and I'm surprised it wasn't a pimp" Maggie mused.

"That's a horrible thing to say"

"I'm allowed to be horrible, I suffer from acute depression," Maggie pointed out.

"Yes but!" I began.

"Criticize me and I'll start cutting up my legs, now do you want to hear about your financial situation or not?" she asked.

"Fine" I sighed wearily.

"The good news is that you've paid off Ducky's car" Maggie said opening her laptop.

"So soon? How?" I asked stunned.

"I told you I was going to invest in my fathers latest film, it was the gay cow boy one and surprisingly it was a box office smash" Maggie said looking faintly surprised.

"Is the car ready?" I asked.

"Yes and both you and Sunny still have around fifteen hundred dollars left" Maggie added checking her figures.

"Fifteen hundred?" I choked.

"Like I said Box Office Smash, it would have been more if you'd invested all your savings instead of twenty percent" Maggie added.

"There's bad news isn't there?" I asked.

"Well not bad per say, just a bit annoying" admitted Maggie.

"Seth didn't paint the car pink did he?" I asked suspiciously.

"No he lost your contact details so when the car was ready he contacted the phone number he found in the registration details" Maggie began.

"Ducky's number?" I asked.

"No his parents number, and they told Seth they would inform Ducky that his car was ready" Maggie said with a small apologetic shrug.

"CRAP" I cried.

"Crap? I know it's annoying but this isn't an excuse for a Pg-13 profanity" Maggie scolded me.

"The car was supposed to be a surprise! Sunny and I were going to wrap it up in heaps of recycled wrapping paper with a big bow on it! She'll kill me if Ducky finds out first" I hissed.

"Kill you?"

"I can handle environmentalist terrorists, my best friend being kidnapped and being in love with my male best friend but I cant deal with Sunny wanting to kill me!" I snapped.

"Wait did you just say that you're in love with your male best friend?" Maggie asked raising her eyebrows.

"Of course I didn't!"

"But I just heard you" Maggie pointed out.

"Oh whatever, next thing I know Ducky will be sending me an email saying he cant accept our gift and he'll be selling the car on e-bay in order to raise money for orphans in New Orleans" I cried with despair and then a thought occurred to me.

"Hang on, email" I realized.

"Email?" Maggie asked.

"Ducky's parents are currently doing field work in South Australia! They answer their cell phone but they never make phone calls because it's way too expensive. Instead whenever they tell Ducky anything they email him," I remembered. It frustrated Ducky quite a bit, especially when in random panicky moments he realized he couldn't remember what his fathers voice sounded like.

"You're not suggesting that we summon my private driver head off to Ducky's university, break into his computer and delete all his emails are you?" asked Maggie.

"Yes, but we need to be back by eleven because I need to confront environmental terrorists" I explained.

"Well just so we're clear," sighed Maggie.

As we left the school I felt strange for several obvious reasons.

One I was actually skipping school for the third time in a month, which for me was unheard of, but to be fair I'd been too late for homeroom so as far as the school was concerned I'd never arrived.

Two we were actually going on an adventure with Maggie instead of Sunny.

And three the microphone was pressing right into my cleavage.

"Right" I said firmly glancing over my shoulder one last time.

"Why did you say right?" Maggie asked me.

"I was just trying to assert myself," I informed her.

"Oh, hey there's Justin hanging outside the gates, I find it funny that he's now the creepy older guy who hangs around schools asking where all the cool parties are going to be" Maggie laughed.

"You dated him," I pointed out.

"One date remember? Besides he didn't sport the whole leather duster look back then" she said crinkling her nose with disgust as her private town car pulled up to the curb.

"So Sunny, kidnapped then?" Maggie asked fifteen minutes into the car trip.

"Yes"

"By actual kidnappers as apposed to psycho serial killers who like breaking pretty girls in?" Maggie asked with an unhealthy gleam in her eyes.

"This isn't one of your fathers movies Maggie, I explained about the eco terrorists," I pointed out.

"That's so far fetched you know, I mean serial killers are everywhere these days but eco terrorists?"

"They're just like normal ones but they hate McDonalds as apposed to America" I replied hotly.

"Hmm" said Maggie drumming her perfectly filed nails on her lap top computer.

"Hmm?"

"And the bit about you being in love with your male best friend? That's Ducky right?" she asked.

"Oh shut up"

"Look it's obvious that he likes you as well, he bought you a section of a South American rainforest for your birthday" Maggie sighed.

"He did?" I asked.

"Well yes, haven't you gotten it yet?" Maggie asked.

"My birthdays not for another three weeks" I pointed out.

"Oh well, pretend to act surprised wont you? He was raving on about it to Rico for hours" Maggie sighed.

"No one has ever bought me an entire section of a rainforest before" I admitted.

"It is rather romantic when you consider it's you, trust me you need to be more open about your feelings or you'll end up a dried up manic depressive anorexic Goth who writes morbid song lyrics on toilet doors" Maggie informed me seriously.

"You broke up with Brendan again didn't you?" I asked knowingly.

"Stupid shit fucked that whore Lindsay Lohan" spat Maggie as the car pulled to a stop outside the campus dormitories.

The dormitories were mostly empty, considering it was in fact the middle of the day and everyone should have been at their lectures.

Or failing that still asleep in their beds. Maggie and I walked down the corridors and I still felt oddly enough out of place. It was strange considering I'd seen plenty of girls dressed like me, I was wearing my bright pink peasant dress covered with hand sewn flowers, I'd bought it from a vintage clothing store which was slightly better then a thrift store.

The store clerk had said it was from the sixties and it was just waiting for some one like me to wear it, I'd loved it the first time I put it on but now I suddenly wanted to wear something different.

I wanted to be thin like Maggie, I wanted to be able to move in black the way Maggie did.

Ducky's dormitory was empty and unlocked, Ducky who had faith in all of mankind never bothered to lock anything including his car.

Oddly enough no one ever robbed him.

I made straight for the computer, luckily he'd left it online and all I had to do was pull up a web browser and head for hotmail.

"How do you know what his password is?" Maggie asked.

"All his passwords are aliens from the television series Doctor Who" I replied. After typing in Slitheen and Cybermen I typed in Dalek and I instantly got access.

A few seconds later I located the new emails and I stared at the one from his parents, my hands hovered over the mouse and for a second I remained undecided.

Then I hit the delete button and just like that, it was gone.

"Is this really where Ducky lives?" Maggie sniffed.

"Yes, come on let's get out of here"

"What's with all the posters referring to obscure forms of pop culture?" Maggie asked.

"Ducky likes that kinda stuff, he think it makes him interesting" I said my eyes swiveling to the Futurama Poster I'd bought him for Christmas.

"Do you think it's interesting?"

"It has its moments" I'd admitted, Ducky had gone through a Captain Planet phase eight months earlier and we'd both watched the episodes obsessively on our computers while talking on the phone.

He loved it for it's cheesiness and I loved it for it's environmental message, we knew the obsession had reached it's peak when we started singing the theme song in the middle of a scented candle store.

"I think some ones coming" Maggie hissed.

"Quick into the bathroom"

"The bathroom?"

"It has a fire escape underneath the window" I hissed grabbing her on the arm. I pulled her into the tiny cramped bathroom slamming the door behind me and I was about to head for the window when a sound grabbed my attention. Behind the bathroom door, back in Ducky's bedroom some one was moaning.

"Ducky" I said thoughts about him entering a junk food induced coma running through my head.

"Wait" Maggie said grabbing onto my arm but I opened the door a crack.

And saw Ducky and some girl tongue kissing each other right in front of his computer.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter eleven.

The door silently swung shut but I could barely move, considering all the emotional turmoil I'd gone through in the past three weeks I was bound to enter a cationic state sooner or later.

"Relax I don't think they saw us" whispered Maggie, I slowly blinked.

"Hey wait a second am I still hallucinating or are you two girls really in my bathroom?" another voice, male and wheezy asked and slowly I managed to turn my head.

Duck's room mate was sitting in the bathtub and oddly enough it was filled with ice.

There were several things you should know about Ducky's roommate, he's name was Ernest but everyone called him Ernie. He tended to wear big Hawaiian shirts which looked terrible against his ginger hair and he was morbidly obese.

I'd only ever met him once before and he'd insisted that he needed his build for his future career as a professional opera singer.

"Oh wait a second you're that girl who helped Ducky move in after break right? He's little sister?" Ernie asked and Maggie shot me a curious look.

"She's not his little sister" Maggie corrected him.

"I assumed she was, he's always talking about her but she's not his girlfriend or anything," Ernie said.

"Why are you sitting in a bathtub filled with ice?" I finally choked my voice sounding strangled.

"I've got my eastern philosophy exam coming up," he said as if that explained it all.

"And?" Maggie prompted him.

"I'm trying to give myself pneumonia," he added stretching his gigantic flabby arms.

"I think I need to sit down" I choked my feet collapsing underneath me.

"Whoa easy now, try not to break anything" Maggie cried catching me by my arms and easing me onto the floor.

"Is she on drugs? Because I cant have unhealthy substances polluting my atmosphere and ruining my voice" Ernie grumbled.

"She's not on drugs, she's upset because she just saw the boy she's in love with frenching some skanky whore," Maggie hissed.

"Dude she shouldn't be having feelings like that for her brother, I mean that's just gross" he grimaced.

"She's not his sister for the last time! And don't you think your being a little bit retarded? Giving yourself pneumonia will do far more damage to your vocal chords then a bit of pot," Maggie snorted.

"Oh what would you know?" he asked flippantly.

"I happen to be a professional singer, if you're going to try and get out of an exam by faking an illness you should try a suicide attempt" Maggie cried.

"Oh yeah like I'm really going to cut up my wrists"

"You can just stand on top of a bridge just as easily and it's not like you actually have to jump" Maggie informed him and suddenly I remembered what Maggie had done a week before last years English final.

"Maggie!" I hissed with horror.

"What? I needed extra time! That book of poetry was over eight hundred pages," she pointed out.

"A suicide attempt, it would add a certain amount of flair to my autobiography" Ernie said shooting Maggie an approving look.

"I thought that myself, I'm Maggie by the way so are you really a singer?" Maggie asked.

"An Opera tenor" he corrected her.

"Gosh" said Maggie looking faintly impressed.

"So are you Ducky's sister?" he asked.

" Ducky doesn't have any sisters! We're friends from Palo City.. how long do you think he'll be in there with the Goth girl?" she asked.

"With Christina? Hard to say, he only ever hooks up with her when he's stressed over finals"

"I guess we'll go through the fire escape then" I sighed feeling rather Goth myself.

"Cant, some guys set fire to the fire escape a month ago" Ernie said shifting slightly causing a dozen half melted ice cubes to slosh onto the floor.

"Why on earth would any one set fire to the fire escape?" Maggie asked.

"They're post modern art students, it was apart of their exam" Ernie grinned and I groaned.

"We have to figure out a way to get Ducky out of there so we can leave" I finally said.

"Maybe if we're lucky he'll only last two minutes, I mean it is Ducky" Maggie said carefully.

"How well do you guys actually know Ducky?" Ernie asked shooting us both a bemused look.

"What are you implying exactly?" I asked coldly.

"Well he's a smart reasonably good looking guy who knows how to spin the nice sensitive dude act, on average lets say he has enough experience to go way longer then two minutes" Ernie chuckled to himself.

"This is so disturbing, if I wasn't apposed to guns I'd shoot myself in the head" I cried clamping my hands over my ears.

"It's not like you'll here anything, I think he's put a Rocket Summer CD on" Maggie said and I very nearly started to cry again.

"I gave him that CD for Christmas" I whispered.

"Dudes if you really want to get rid of them you could trigger the sprinkler system, I'm pretty sure that still works" Ernie said conversationally pointing upwards towards a smoke detector.

"Maggie get out your lighter" I said grimly and Maggie shot me an innocent look.

"I know perfectly well that you smoke in nightclubs in an attempt to look hard core Maggie, the lighter now" I said extending my hand and she reluctantly handed me the lighter.

It was in the shape of a naked man that cut off just above its package.

"It was a gift from Rico" Maggie blushed. I glanced around the room warily, the toilet was too far away from the smoke detector, there were no chairs, and I wasn't going to risk my chances on the very dodgy sink. The bath tub looked like my only shot and I climbed onto the edge of it balancing myself precariously on one foot while turning on the lighter and waving it underneath the smoke detector.

"How long do you think this will take to work? It normally happens instantly in Daddy's movies" Maggie mused and I cried out with triumph as the dormitory filled with the sound of the smoke alarm going off and the sprinklers whooshed into life.

"I think I should point out that I can see up your dress" Ernie said in a reproachful tone of voice.

"What?" I cried and in that instant of shock and uncertainty my foot slipped on the bath's edge and I went crashing straight into the tub.

"Dawn is you alright?" Maggie cried running towards me and slipping over on the floor, which was rapidly turning, into a lake.

"I'm fine, just freezing! Check and see if they've left" I hissed my teeth chattering together.

"You know this is the first time I've ever shared a bath with some one" grinned Ernest and Maggie squealed as the bathroom door was flung open. Maggie ducked behind the open door and I gasped with horror as I realized Ducky had entered the room without his shirt on clutching onto an umbrella covered in yellow flowers.

I recognized it instantly, it was the umbrella I'd lent him ages ago when it rained during our trip to Disneyland.

"Ernie are you ok…" Ducky began and then he trailed off when his eyes fell on me.

"Dude I'm fine accept for the smoke alarm going off" Ernie said cheerfully.

"Um why are you sitting with Ernie in a bathtub full of ice?" he asked me and I froze, I couldn't think of a single logical explanation for my behavior.

"Dude who are you talking to?" Ernie asked and Ducky shot him a baffled look before pointing at me.

"My friend Dawn, she's sitting with you in the bathtub" he cried.

"Why would your friend Dawn share a bathtub full of ice with me?" Ernie asked gently.

"Am I seeing things?" Ducky said his voice catching in his throat.

It was the perfect plan, Ducky was far to socially polite to point out that I was sitting in the bathtub in a dress which was rapidly growing transparent.

He stared at us both his eyes lingering on me.

"What are you staring at Dude?" Ernie asked, Ducky's mouth slowly opened before snapping shut again.

I couldn't say anything even if I wanted to, and I realized that the ice was beginning to rapidly melt.

Ducky blinked again and then he shut the door, I breathed out heavily with relief as the door shut and then once the coast was clear I crawled out of the tub.

"Dude did you see the look on his face?" Ernie said.

"Look?" I asked puzzled and Maggie crept out from behind the door.

"He looked as if some one had kicked his favorite puppy" she mused.

An hour later I found myself back in my bedroom tossing my damp dress into the hamper. Maggie and I had hung around for another ten minutes until we heard Ducky leave, I tried to ignore the fact that Maggie wrote her cell phone number down on the collar of Ernie's shirt.

Those two hooking up was the last thing I needed.

I caught my reflection in the mirror and I sighed, my eyes falling on my yellow panties with the red love hearts and the stupid white lace bra that didn't even match.

Even with the microphone taped onto the left cup I still looked stupid and childish.

I put on my old free Tibet t-shirt and then collapsed onto my bed, it was barely four in the afternoon.

I still had eight hours before I'd have to leave.

There was a knock at the door and I sighed rolling my eyes.

"Come in" I snapped and Carol opened the door, Carol barely even noticed when I was being rude to her.

I guess she was used to it after three years.

"Dawn why aren't you wearing any pants?" she asked and I gestured to the wet dress in the hamper.

"So you're not planning on going out tonight?" Carol asked and I shrugged my shoulders before burying my face into my pillow.

"Good because you're watching Grace" Carol said promptly.

"No I'm not" I replied.

"Yes you are, I wrote it down on your calendar" Carol said.

"You did not!" I snapped and Carol picked up a magic marker before scrawling "watch Gracie" onto the rainforest themed calendar I kept on my wall.

"I have plans later on, important plans" I said seriously.

"Such as?" Carol asked curiously, but I couldn't tell her.

"Thought as much, your dad and I will be out until two for some sort of cocktail party and Jeff is staying over at a friends" Carol said placing the magic marker back on my dressing table.

I knew that there was no real point in arguing with Carol when she entered her own little dream like world, the best thing to do was to do things behind her back.

As soon as she left I picked up my cell phone and called Jill.

"Hey Jill, how do you feel about hanging out with Gracie tonight?" I asked.

It's not as if I dislike my three year old sister, in fact I love her but well when you live with her day in and day out she does tend to get a little annoying. It's even worse when she teams up with some one who is technically her soul mate, like Jill. After three hours of sitting with both of them in the den I was thinking of going against my no guns policy so I could plant a bullet into my brain.

"This is Lizabeth" said Gracie with a proud smile on her face holding up her brunette Barbie that was dressed in a long what satin ball gown.

"You mean she's named after you? How cute" squealed Jill.

"No it's named after Elizabeth Bennet, I have no idea why a three year old would be obsessed with that movie" I sighed as I packed my handbag for the night.

"How cute! She should have a ball" squealed Jill.

"With flying fairies" grinned Gracie.

"And a unicorn!"

"And pink tea!"

"No more pink tea! She was supposed to be in bed two hours ago and if you give her anymore sugar she'll be up all night" I groaned.

"Just one bit Dawnie" Gracie pleaded.

"No, honestly if I get back from meeting the terrorists and find her painting on the walls with lipstick I will kill her Jill" I snorted.

"Hey I babysat as well! I can handle her"

"Jill your idea of decent babysitting usually involved randomly bribing small children with ice-cream" I recalled.

"it always worked and I don't believe in punishing children" Jill glared at me and jumped as the door bell rang.

"Don't answer it, it'll be a serial killer!" shrieked Jill and I ignored her heading for the door.

Instantly I gasped with shock and almost shut the door in Ducky's face.

"Is it a serial killer?" shrieked Jill and Gracie began to cry.

"It's Ducky"

"Dawn you're not supposed to have boyfriends over while you're babysitting!" Jill cried.

"It's my house!" I called back and Ducky was still staring at me looking both sheepish and terrified.

"Um Dawn hi" he began.

"Ducky! Um why are you blushing?" I asked and I realized his eyes were hovering around my neither regions.

"Well you're not wearing any pants" he pointed out and I gasped with mortification.

"Oh god" I shrieked before running to my bedroom. The Schafer house hold was pretty laid back and my free Tibet shirt hovered to just below my thighs so I'd never actually gotten around to putting my jeans back on. After a few moments of frantic scrambling I tugged on my faded jeans and ran back to the hall way.

Gracie had now abducted Ducky and was carefully tying silk ribbons into his shaggy brown hair.

"I had the weirdest dream this afternoon" he began as Jill helped Gracie add a bright blue ribbon.

"And you couldn't have just called?" I asked and he slowly shook his head.

"Can we go for a drive?" he asked and Jill grinned her head off before nodding enthusiastically.

"But you don't have a car" I reminded him.

"I do now"

"Oh crap"

"Please Dawn" and I very nearly said yes but then I heard the hall clock chime ten thirty.

"I cant, I have some where I need to be" I said.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Of course not!"

"Because I know you've been working at McDonald's to pay for the car Dawn! That stoner Mechanic told me a lot" he began.

"That's where I have to be actually, call me in the morning" I said walking back into the hallway and Ducky grabbed onto my hand.

"No"

"Come on Ducky I'm going to be late" I snapped grabbing onto my purse while adjusting the recorder in my bra.

"I'll drive you, this is important" he said and I sighed realizing I wasn't going to get rid of him.

"Fine" I admitted reluctantly.

"Jill watch Gracie and keep her out of Carol's make up bag"

Outside stood the reincarnation of Ducky's car. In the dim street light I could see that Seth had for some bizarre reason repainted Ducky's entire car in shades of bright red, orange and yellow with a massive sun on the roof.

"Oh my god" I muttered.

"I'm guessing that this wasn't your idea?"

"Of course not, I'm not color blind" I snorted.

"Well at least I'm mobile again" Ducky mused.

The inside of the car had been completely redone in orange shag carpet, including the roof and the seats.

"I can't believe he used my hard earned money to do this!" I snapped.

"Actually I kind of like it, very nineteen seventies pimp" Ducky said starting up the engine and I reluctantly fastened my seat belt.

"So where are we going?"

"The McDonalds on Bluegrass avenue" I replied my eyes falling onto my shaking hands.

"So my dream" he began.

"Hmm?"

"You've always been good at interoperating them and this one was really weird, in my dream I opened my bathroom door only to find you in a bathtub with my room mate wearing that really cute pink dress of yours" he began.

"Well that symbolizes many things" I said diplomatically.

"Only in my dream I felt physically sick, like everything that could have ever gone wrong with the universe had gone wrong and there was nothing I could do to change it" Ducky began.

"I would feel that way if I saw Ernie in the bath as well" I joked.

"It wasn't that" he half laughed.

"Then what was it?"

"We've been friends for a long time right? Almost forever?" he asked.

"Three years actually"

"And that's the longest healthy relationship I've ever had with a girl! I mean I even once went a month without talking to Sunny" he pointed out.

"After the gay bar incident" I recalled out loud.

"I still get the shivers when I see fairy wings" Ducky shuddered.

"Ducky are you going to get to a point sometime soon?" I asked.

"I'm trying to have a serious discussion with you and all you care about is whether or not I'm going to get to the point"

"I'm under a lot of stress!" I cried with frustration.

"And does this stress explain why we're driving to McDonalds in the middle of the night?"

"Maybe, keep driving" I replied.

"Remember a few years ago when we were out at that restaurant and my friend Jake was acting like he liked you?"

"That insensitive asshole! He practically force fed me those disgusting ribs" I recalled and Ducky burst out laughing.

"I knew he wasn't right for you but the weird thing was I really cared, it was like watching a cross over episode where Jack from Lost hooks up with Bree from Desperate Housewives"

"You mean totally screwed up?' I joked.

"I'm serious Dawn and it's weird because I've never really had that kind of reaction towards any one before" he continued.

"The McDonald's is just here, pull over"

"For Christ sake Dawn!" he practically screamed before pulling over.

"You can tell me every thing soon ok? This is serious" I snapped back.

"What can be more serious then this? If you don't want me to tell you how I feel then.." began.

" How you feel?" I began slightly stunned.

"Yes"

"You mean you feel well.. feelings?"

"Um" Ducky began sheepishly.

"Oh Ducky" I said quietly not quite sure how to react and he glanced up from the steering wheel a small smile on his face.

For one moment and for the very first time I thought that maybe the world of romance would finally work for me.

That I'd finally be able to get in a relationship with a guy that didn't result in him living in Kansas, cheating on me with an older woman or never bothering to answer my letters after saying farewell on a cruise.

I slowly reached forward and his hand grabbed onto mine, then suddenly we both heard the sound of a hand knocking on Ducky's window.

"Hold on it's probably a windscreen wiper wanting change" he grinned opened the door.

There was a sudden flash of metal in the dark and then a faint hissing sound followed by Ducky screeching with pain.

I watched as Ducky slumped sideways and I barely grabbed him in time as a thick dark red stain began to blossom on his favorite shirt.

"Dawn?" he questioned and I glanced up dreading what I'd see.

The woman stood before me clutching onto a butchers knife an impassive expression on her face.

"Thought you could bring a spook with you huh? Well I told you what would happen if you brought in the authorities" she informed me a small smile crossing her features.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter twelve.

A/N I have a confession to make, the remaining chapters of this were written in a notebook but I never typed it up due to lack of interest.

However I've recently gotten three new reviews so I've started typing up the remaining two chapters! YAY! So enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Californian diaries series but considering this story basically only takes the character names I think I'm ok.

This wasn't the way the way my life was supposed to work out. Well actually when you think about it my life would some how involve eco terrorists but usually I'd be on their side.

Instead I found myself being held hostage clutching the bleeding Ducky onto my lap as the woman drove a hundred miles and hour down the freeway.

"You know he's bleeding you stupid bitch the least you could do is drop us off at the free medical center" I spat over the sound of Indie Rock Radio.

There was a small clicking sound and she turned around holding onto a small compact handgun.

"For Christ sake instead of shooting me watch the road" I said calmly and she spun around.

"I'm getting blood all over the new carpet aren't I?" Ducky managed to ask his face covered in sweat.

"Oh shit, remember BSC training," I hissed and I whipped off my jacket pressing it against the wound.

"Both of you shut the fuck up" shrieked our kidnapper and Ducky gave me a knowing look which caused me to reluctantly close my mouth.

I could barely see Ducky's wound in the light but considering he wasn't dead yet I decided the best thing to do would be to keep the pressure on until the woman finally stopped the car.

It didn't take long; thankfully everything in LA only took twenty minutes to get to.

"You two out" she said parking the car in front the McDonalds on sixty Fifth Avenue.

"Oh god" hissed Ducky as he slumped onto my side and instantly I could see what had gotten his attention.

The entire car park was packed.

"Cheap ass Tuesdays" muttered Ducky incorrectly.

My eyes traveled up the road where I saw a movie theatre.

Of course.

Cheap ass Tuesdays when movie tickets were half price and everyone went to McDonalds after.

"You're going to kill them all" I said loudly hoping the wiring in my bra would pick up my voice.

"Shut up, the security codes" the woman barked.

"They're in the jacket" I pointed out and she wrenched the make shift bandage off Ducky.

"You two in" she said as she unzipped her own jacket revealing a McDonald's uniform.

"In?" I asked trying to stop Ducky from falling straight into a puddle.

"In, cause a distraction" she replied still holding onto the gun.

"Fine in" I said pulling Ducky behind him.

"Oh my god is he alright?" a voice immediately shrieked the moment I managed to push Ducky into one of the booths.

He immediately slumped forward his head touching the table and I glanced upwards seeing a mother no older then Carol holding onto her little boy.

"Of course his not! Listen you have to call 911 right now and the police," I hissed.

"Right of course an ambulance," she said reaching for her cell phone and my eyes fell on the kid.

"Actually I'll call them but you really need to get him out of here" I said gesturing towards the kid and by now I realized half the restaurant happened to be staring at us.  
"Dawn?" Ducky managed to whisper.

"I'm right here," I said grabbing onto his hands.

"I don't think his dying, step aside I'm a registered nurse" a middle aged man who'd been sitting with his family said coming towards us.

"He's fine! But you need to get all of these people out of here right now" I insisted.

"Why?" the mother asked warily backing away from us but she was interrupted when we all heard a faint beeping sound.

"Security code accepted, protocols overriding" a neutral robotic voice suddenly announced and the guy cleaning the bin tray glanced up an assistant manager badge pinned onto his shirt.

"Hang on the doors aren't supposed to shut until one am," he said dropping the bag onto the floor and there was a faint hissing sound as the automatic doors shut presently.

"Oh shit," I whispered as the beeping sound died away and every one looked about in confusion.

There was the faint slap slap sound of flip-flops hitting tiles and the woman walked in from behind the employee's only door.

The first thing I heard was the scream, the first thing I saw was what looked like a bombs detonator strapped to her arm.

"Now lets stop that screaming shall we? Save it for when the media shows up" she said calmly.

Half an hour passed.

"I've done the best I can do with the staff medical kit" the nurse whose name was George said.

"And I've drugged him up on cramp medicine" the mother continued and I was so grateful and yet so terrified I wanted to cry.

The woman was busy talking to the manager.

"Did you know that every day you're condemning hundreds of children to death?" she asking toying with her gun.

"Look lady I already said you can clean out the registers" he pleaded.

"And I already said for you to shut up" she said firing a shot at the coke machine causing everyone to scream and soda to explode from the wall.

"Dawn? She's crazy isn't she?" Ducky asked as I stroked his hair and her eyes swept towards mine.

"How sweet, the beautiful blond with her handsome dashing boyfriend" she finally said however there was something distant in her eyes, something almost sad.

"He's not my boyfriend" I corrected her.

"Of course he isn't! girls like you don't have boyfriends, you can get so many men you never need to commit" the woman spat coldly.

"Actually you've gotten me confused with Sunny again, speaking of which you promised to let her go" I replied and Ducky groaned the woman seemed confused for a fraction of a second and then she laughed.

"Let her go? We never actually had her dear.. all we did was steal her cell phone" she said with a small smirk.

"Shit" I hissed.

"Last I saw of her she was leaving the club with some young man she kept referring to as Seth, well I suppose it's not your fault your so melodramatic and gullible" the woman informed me and I felt worse then the time Mary Anne accidentally fed me beef.

"But Nick said he saw.. he heard" I trailed off.

"Oh we suspected she was being followed so we messed up her room again, I played the part of the struggling Sunny" she laughed before screaming hysterically as if some one was attacking her.

"See, easy" she grinned.

Suddenly I jumped when I realized I could feel my cell phone go off and the room filled with my ring tone.

"Answer it," the woman said calmly and I reluctantly pressed my phone against the ear.

"Dawn? This is Nick what's the current situation?" she asked.

"Our situation is relaxed," I finally said and the woman smirked.

"That's them isn't it, not the police" she said carefully.

"Yes" I confessed.

"Tell them I want the police to back off unless they want me to blow up their entire inventory"

"She's requesting that the police should back off Nick, she has a bomb she said something about destroying the inventory" I said breathlessly.

"Tell her we want demands, it'll give us some time to stall while we over ride the security system" Nick finally said before ringing off.

"He wants to know what your demands are," I finally said and the woman for a second looked completely taken aback.

"I'll.. Have to ask the others" she finally confessed.

"She doesn't know" Ducky finally said.

"Shh" I hushed him.

"She's got no idea what the hell she's gotten herself into, you can see it," he said and the woman's chin tilted as if challenged.

"Fine I know what my demands are, McDonald's is to promise to no longer super size any meals in this state or every one dies" she said with a small self satisfied smile.

"Those are your demands? You've terrified my son for a hamburger size?" the single mother cried and the woman rolled her eyes.

"Every one just relax because this gun still has four bullets left," she said waving the weapon around and every one ducked.

"Look lady you haven't actually hurt anyone yet and I bet the authorities aren't sure what to make of you, maybe they'll go easy on you if you let out some of the kids" George the nurse finally said after a tense pause.

The woman's eyes fell on the little boy who was still playing with his free hot wheels car.

"Nobody goes" she said her eyes darting away.

"I know who she is" Ducky whispered to me, by now the woman was guarding the stores manager on the other side of the restaurant the gun planted firmly against his skull.

"You do?" I whispered.

"Well I don't really know her, but I know of her. At least I think I do. She looks exactly like Sandra Bianco, or at least a Sandra Bianco who's lost fifty pounds" Ducky whispered back.

"Huh?"

"Sandra was in my year during middle school, she transferred during the eighth grade she was as huge as a bus back then and rumor had it her parents sent her to some sort of special school for obese kids" he whispered back. The woman, possibly Sandra suddenly glanced up her eyes falling suspiciously on us.

"It's not about the environment" I realized.

"What are you two talking about?" she asked hopping upwards and as her shirt lifted I saw visible stretch marks on her stomach.

"You were fat" I challenged her and her posture reeled back as if she'd been slapped.

"What?"

"Harry he was fat as well! This whole thing was never about the environment it was about a bunch of fat kids getting vengeance" I realized gently easing Ducky back against the chair so I could stand up and confront her.

"Fat kids" she laughed nervously.

"Even the name is obvious! The summoning French fry, you just had to turn your favorite snack into something mythic didn't you?" I asked and then my eyes fell on the tattoo on her arm.

The sun and a star, the sun the biggest star of all in our world.

I'd always been into symbolism but even a moron like Jeff could have figured that much out, a girl with a tattoo like that was crying out for attention.

"Jesus your pathetic, you're going to blow up all these people because of your hunger pangs" I realized.

"It's for the noble good, they cause people to die of heart attacks," she said gesturing to the room in general.

"They cause teenage girls to grow fat, to never be satisfied, to constantly turn to food as a crutch" she continued manically.

"Oh please it's called self control" I scoffed.

"It's called being poisoned! They've destroyed who we are" cried Sandra.

"They? You destroyed yourself Sandra when you shoved that first French fry into your mouth" I retorted and her expression froze.

"You told her who I am" she said to Ducky.

"Then I was right"

"You still recognize me, I'm still fat" she said her voice dying away.

"Actually a lack of exercise causes people to die from heart attacks" the nurse suddenly said.

"Shut up" screamed Sandra tears gathering in her eyes and then her hand reached downwards as she detonated the bomb.

Then suddenly there was a faint whooshing sound as Nick over ride the security system.

"Everyone run" George the nurse screamed.

The thing about dying is that when it happens it lasts forever. As her hand moved towards the detonator I felt Ducky's familiar fingers entwine with mine and there were so many things I hadn't done yet.

There were so many things I hadn't said yet.

His chest brushed against my back and I felt the sticky blood hit the small of my back. Ducky's grip tightened as we ran for the door trying to get through the crowd but deep down I knew it was far to late.

The crowd surged and we fell near one of the tables during the final ten seconds.

Ducky was staring at me, so terrified so not Ducky but then suddenly he gave me one last one grand gesture.

I felt his lips pressed against mine and then it parted and well you can imagine what happened next.

I'd been kissed by Ducky before, at New Years and Christmas under the mistletoe but never quite like this.

And then I realized he was only kissing me like this because this was how Ducky said goodbye.

"Close your eyes" I whispered when he broke away.

Our time was up.

"So is the story finally over?" Mary Anne asked me and I was back in the councilors office of my subconscious.

"The bomb went off didn't it?" I realized.

"Is the story over?" Mary Anne asked and I glanced about fearfully for some reason both my head and leg hurt more then I could bare.

"The story is never really over, not until your dead," I pointed out.

"And what if you are?" Mary Anne said with a logical cool tint of her head.

There was something off about the way I remembered her, the way her eyes crinkled the way her face scowled.

It wasn't exactly familiar.

"Then the story is over" I replied wondering if it really was.

"And what did you learn?" she asked raising her head.

"I haven't learned a thing which means the story isn't over" I replied but I could tell the end was coming soon.

"How much longer do I have?" I asked Mary Anne and she finally moved from her leather chair sitting beside me.

"I really don't know," she whispered.

"You don't?" I asked.

"It's hard to tell what with eternal bleeding a shattered pelvis and a ruptured kidney," Mary Anne admitted and I grimaced.

"Well at least you didn't mention brain damage" I laughed uneasily my breath catching in my throat.

"Yes we'd all know you'd hate having your favorite organ destroyed" Mary Anne replied flippantly and I stared at her, the girl who was my sister and yet who wasn't.

Who had an air about her that was almost but not exactly right?

And I remembered the last dream I had.

"You're not my sister" I realized.

"No I'm not," she said gently and then she extended her hand towards mine.

"The stories over Dawn, take my hand" she said and I felt everything close in, everything grow hot and clammy.

But it was all to soon, far to soon.

I stared at her hands slightly bigger then Mary Anne's and when I glanced up Sunny's mother her eyes worn out and her skin still that ghastly shade of white gray.

She looked so tired.

"No" I said hiding my hands behind my back.

"Dawn you're dying anyway, internal bleeding crushed bones, it's all such a huge mess" she sighed wearily as if defeated.

"Oh please I'm not dying, it takes more then a building falling on me to knock me out" I replied and suddenly I was aware that the entire room was filling with dust.

"Oh really?" Mrs. Winslow taunted.

"Yes really" I snapped back.

The comfortable office was gone and suddenly I was aware that I was awake.

Very aware, this was mainly because I was trapped in some sort of cave made of rubble and my leg was bleeding heavily.

Moving wasn't an option.

My eyes rolled to one side and I could see someone lying underneath a piece of broken off wall glassy eyes staring straight ahead.

I recognized her instantly.

"I wasn't always like this" Sandra whispered.

Her free arm lay so close I could clearly see her tattoo shining brilliantly on her sickly pale white skin.

" I wasn't either" I replied.

"Do you get to go to dances?" she asked sweat gathering on her skin, clammy, and obviously incoherent.

"I go to dances all the time" I replied painfully trying to keep her conscious, some how my crushed less seemed far less important then her predicament.

"With… him?" she finally asked and I shook my head, her brow crinkled with confusion.

"But.." she began.

"You wont always get what you want just because you happen to be blond and thin Sandra, life well it's about never getting what we want" I said but then I realized that once again I was lecturing some one.

Who happened to be dying.

"Sorry I tend to tell people off a lot" I confessed.

"I want to dance" she just said, almost wistfully and then she began to choke her breath drawing out into one last long rattle.

I moved quickly latching my free arm onto hers my fingers climbing up the tattoo before squeezing her hand.

Her grip tightened against mine for a fraction of a second before falling slack and when I looked up at her face blood had frothed around her lips.

I could only hear my own breathing now, and the distant wail of emergency vehicles.

"The story is never really over until your dead" I whispered to Sandra letting go of her hand.

In every fairy tale I'd ever read my babysitting charges the village always died dramatically, usually because of their own stupidity.

And as for the princess? Well she always survived after receiving a kiss of course.

As I stared at the girl who'd once been fat and alone, whose dying wish was to dance I actually began to cry.

It was funny how much real life really did resemble stories.


End file.
